POLICE in North Yorkshire have reassured the public that their cadets undergo "rigorous vetting", following sexual allegations against cadets at other forces.

This week, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), urged all police chiefs to check their force's safeguarding arrangements around volunteer police cadets, after investigations were opened into cadets within Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police Service.

A GMP constable is under investigation over complaints regarding "abuse of position for sexual purpose", and a referral from the Met highlighted "potential failures by three officers involved in the running of a cadet programme in the London region".

Regarding the Met officers, a spokesman said: "We are independently investigating the officers for potentially failing to put in place immediate and appropriate safeguarding arrangements after being made aware that a volunteer cadet leader may have abused his position for sexual purpose.

The officer in Manchester was arrested and released on bail "and more potential victims have been identified", and the IOPC said it was also investigating "the conduct of a police sergeant regarding their actions within the force’s cadet programme and how they dealt with the reports of alleged abuse of power for sexual purpose by the PC".

In London, a separate misconduct investigation is being held into the behaviour of an MPS officer "regarding allegations he abused his position for sexual purpose at a London based cadet training camp".

IOPC Deputy Director General Ian Todd said the organisation was "sufficiently concerned by these two referrals to ask all police forces in England and Wales to urgently review their own Volunteer Police Cadet programmes", to ensure robust safeguarding procedures were in place.

Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police Phil Cain said the cadet programmes "have proved extremely popular" and had helped young people and communities around the region, but all cadets were properly vetted.

He said: "As you would expect, we take every possible step to ensure the safety of young people who join the Police Cadets, and that includes rigorous vetting of everyone who works with the cadets. We also provide all our cadet leaders with a specialist handbook which covers a range of good practice, including safeguarding advice.

"The IOPC’s actions today are on the back of specific problems, in specific Forces, in other areas of the country. We have not had any safeguarding issues involving police cadets at North Yorkshire Police, but we will keep a close watch on all of our safeguarding procedures to make sure that our police cadets continue to be protected."