RACIST incidents soared by more than 26 per cent in North Yorkshire last year.

There were 191 racist incidents reported to police in the county between April 2004 and April 2005, up from 151 the previous year.

The figure was revealed after the Home Office released incorrect figures, which purported to show a 224 per cent rise in racist incidents in the county.

North Yorkshire Police spokesman Ron Johnson said: "There is a fundamental problem with the figures from the Home Office for race-related incidents in North Yorkshire and the year-on-year comparisons, as there are doubts about the accuracy of the figures for some of the previous years.

"The reality is that the actual number of race related incidents in North Yorkshire is one of the lowest in the country, despite the fact that we are positively encouraging the reporting of this kind of incident."

Despite the recent rise, the numbers are still significantly lower than in 2001-02, when there were 228 racist incidents, and 2002-03 when there were 214.

North Yorkshire still has the second lowest number of racist incidents in the country.

Mr Johnson attributed the rise to work done by the force to encourage people to report incidents of racism.

He said all racist incidents in North Yorkshire were treated very seriously, and were flagged up immediately on the force's computer system to be dealt with the most senior police officers - of superintendent rank and above.

In September, the Evening Press told how North Yorkshire Police were praised by an independent inspector for being at the forefront of promoting better racial diversity and equality.

A report by Robin Field-Smith, of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, said the force was the first in England and Wales to show "tangible" results from its efforts to deal more fairly with ethnic minorities and other groups.

North Yorkshire Police was selected as one of three pilot forces to test out a new method of checking race and diversity development through self-assessment last year.

It has introduced new hate crime and repeat victim policies and distributed a leaflet in alternative languages about how the police work, which was distributed to hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups.

Every force employee was sent a leaflet explaining the scheme and their responsibilities under the Race Relations Act.

Updated: 08:44 Saturday, April 01, 2006