RECORDS from the police database have been lost by the Home Office and a former Cumbrian chief constable has spoken out about his concerns.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has been urged to make a statement after the Home Office accidentally lost 150,000 police records during routine ‘housekeeping’.

It is feared that the data loss will mean criminals can walk free as evidence on suspects will not be available on the Police National Computer. However, the Government has been quick to reassure the public that data lost is unessential information on closed cases.

The National Police Chief’s Council, the Home Office and law enforcement’s partners are working at pace to retrieve the data.

Former Cumbria police chief Stuart Hyde said the loss represents a “very large proportion” of around 650,000 people arrested each year.

He has called the data loss, a “risk to public safety and a risk to the safeguarding of vulnerable people across the country”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he explained the data loss in real terms: “In order to understand the scale, if you think that between 6-700,000 people are arrested every year in the UK that’s a very large proportion of those people. So I think it is a large number, it’s a large proportion.”

Contrary to the Government’s reassurances, Mr Hyde explained the impact of the records lost: “In terms of the risk this creates clearly some of those people may be involved in subsequent offending and could only be identified through either fingerprints and DNA when they were subsequently brought to light. “That may be only a few people, a handful, but nonetheless it still represents a risk.”

Mr Hyde said: “They should expect that the providers of the software ensure that there isn’t a system that can automatically wipe what is essentially nearly a quarter of custody delivered DNA and fingerprints in one quick go.”

Secretary of Cumbria Police Federation Jamie McTear said: “There is a potential for this data loss to have a massive impact and we are waiting to see a response from government and the NPCC as to how this will impact on policing.”

He said: “The government cannot hide from the fact it relates to 150000 records which is not a small mistake. This needs rectifying quickly, those responsible held to account and mechanisms put in place so it does not happen again.”