POLICE chiefs in the North-East and North Yorkshire have welcomed a review of the way records are kept following damning revelations about the past of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears told MPs many forces had to do "a lot better to reach the standards we are entitled to expect" in their logging of arrest and court records on to the Police National Computer (PNC).

The criticism came as Humberside Police, who investigated Huntley over a string of alleged sex crimes, admitted deleting records on him. They investigated Huntley over four allegations of rape, an indecent assault on an 11-year-old and other accusations of unlawful sex with girls.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced an inquiry into how Huntley was able to get a job as a school caretaker.

Senior Humberside officers said they had adopted a policy of "weeding" out records because they thought they were required to do so by the Data Protection Act, a misunderstanding described by one MP as "catastrophic".

All four forces in the region - Durham, Cleveland, North Yorkshire and Northumbria - have a policy where they review records of allegations and cautions annually. Details of convictions are held for longer - indefinitely in the cases of murder and sexual and other serious offences.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "We expect a rapid and significant improvement on our performance by the end of January because of the new staff being trained. New technology we are working on should help even more."

Yesterday, Ms Blears told MPs the Data Protection Act did not present police with any inhibitions on collection and use of information.

And Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir John Stevens said police had a duty to hold on to records as long as possible. "With the Data Protection Act you have to push it to the nth degree," he said. "We have to think about the public interest."