Claims that officers in Cumbria were more likely to fine BAME people during the lockdown have been strongly rejected by a top police boss.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Slattery, who chairs the multi-agency Cumbria Covid-19 Strategic Coordination Group, said: “I reject any suggestion that officers have dealt disproportionately with ethnic minorities.

“We work with the national park authority, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Fire and Rescue and others in a multi-agency operation to ensure that people adhere to the regulations.

“Any of those agencies finding people in breach of the regulations would use the ‘4E’ approach - engaging, explaining and encouraging, before considering enforcement.

“We don’t want to give out any fines at all, but where necessary we will issue them.”

The comments came after an article by The Guardian and Liberty Investigates reported that Cumbria police was 6.8 times more likely to fine someone who was of BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) background than a white person.

The figures were obtained thanks to Freedom of Information Requests made to police forces in England and Wales.

However Mr Slattery said the analysis failed to consider that almost half of the fines were issued to people who live outside of Cumbria.

He said: “The stats produced by Liberty Investigates and The Guardian say minorities were 6.8 times more likely to receive a fine, but that is based on a comparison of the figures with the resident population of Cumbria.”

Police data show that of 334 fines issued during the lockdown, only five were issued to Cumbrian residents of BAME background.

A further 22 were issued to black, Asian or minority ethnic people visiting the county.

However the rate calculated by The Guardian and Liberty Investigates, compares the number of fines issued to BAME people with the number of BAME people residing in Cumbria.

Mr Slattery said he had no reason to believe officers were treating any groups differently in their response to community problems.

“Diversity and inclusion are crucially important to us as a force and we work with independent advisory groups who scrutinise the use of police powers.”

He added the force was also scrutinised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and regular external audits were carried out.

Mr Slattery admitted that in the past concerns had been raised about additional stop and search powers used by Cumbrian officers on people of minority background in the aftermath of the London bombings. He added: “Where issues arise we learn from it.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council has commissioned an analysis of force-level ethnicity data which will be published in due course.