Almost 1,000 police and staff caught accessing secret files

The study, by privacy campaigners Big Brother Watch, follows allegations some Metropolitan Police officers were paid tens of thousands of pounds for information being sold to journalists, one of the central issues of the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

The figures, obtained by Freedom of Information requests to all of the 43 forces in England and Wales, show that 904 officers and staff were disciplined for breaching the Data Protection Act between 2007 and 2010. The study shows 243 received criminal convictions, and 98 were sacked.

Breaches ranged from background records checks on friends and possible partners to sensitive information being passed to drug dealers.

Humberside Police was the sixth highest force for sackings, with one officer and four staff being dismissed, while South Yorkshire Police sacked one member of staff.

No information was provided by North Yorkshire Police or West Yorkshire Police.

The biggest number of serious breaches was at Merseyside Police, where 208 employees received criminal convictions.

Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “It’s astonishing to think that 904 police officers and support staff across England and Wales have faced disciplinary action for abusing their access to confidential systems.”

A Humberside Police spokeswoman said: “A breach of the Data Protection Act is taken very seriously and at Humberside Police we work continuously to manage and reduce the risk of people misusing confidential information.”

Steve Garmston, chairman of Humberside Police Federation, added: “We are talking about very low numbers here (in force) and that should be reassuring to the public that we do take data protection issues very seriously.”