POLICE officers in Lancashire spend 1.4million hours a year doing their paperwork, according to new figures.

The stats equate to each of the force's 3,500-plus officers spending one day a week filling out forms.

An MEP has branded the siutation a "scandalous" waste of resources, while the Lancashire Police Federation, representing rank and file, said that successive governments had promised to cut the amount of paperwork, but that things had got worse.

A Lancashire police boss said they were not surprised by the figures.

However, he said steps were being taken to give officers high-tech equipment to complete paperwork' electronically while out on the beat.

The figures for the force were the third highest in the North West, behind the larger Greater Manchester on 3,246,383 hours and Merseyside on 1,764,105.

North West Euro MEP Chris Davies said police officers told him the situation was much worse than the figures suggested.

He said: "Police officers tell me that as much as 80 per cent of their time can be spent completing the mountains of paperwork.

"It's a scandalous waste of time and public resources."

Steve Edwards, chair of Lancashire Police Federation, said it was an "age old" problem.

Figures have been based on the fact that police officers work a total of 2,060 hours a year including overtime. In the last year for which figures are available police spent 19.3 per cent of time on paperwork.