Yorkshire sex offenders among 300 on the loose in Britain

Three of the region's police forces, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Humberside, admitted having lost track of criminals on the Sex Offenders Register.

They were among 46 forces in Britain who responded to a survey which revealed that the whereabouts of 316 sex offenders were unknown.

South Yorkshire and Humberside each admitted having lost eight sex attackers, while North Yorkshire revealed that one of the convicts it had been monitoring was at large.

The region's largest force, West Yorkshire Police, was one of six nationwide who had failed to reply at the time the survey was published.

West Mercia Police chief constable Paul West, the UK's lead officer for dealing with sexual and violent offenders, said police monitored more than 32,000 convicts on the Sex Offenders Register.

He added: "Regardless of this robust management there will always be occasions when offenders fail to comply with their notification requirements.

"As soon as this becomes apparent they will be treated as missing and every effort made to locate them."

Of the 316 offenders at large, 128 were last registered at an address in London, 30 were in the West Midlands and 15 were in Greater Manchester.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "The safety and protection of the public is paramount at all times when dealing with sex offenders.

"We take this matter extremely seriously and officers are proactively following lines of inquiry in order to trace these offenders to ensure that they are dealt with robustly for having breached the terms of their conditions."

Supt Bob Mills, from the West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit, said officers were working "continuously" to find those missing.

He said the task "has to take place in a controlled and covert way to reduce the risk of the offender going further off the radar".

Supt Mills added: "Our strategy for finding these offenders is regularly reviewed and also considers the potential for the victim becoming a target for retribution."