The information commissioner said more guidance would be given

Until 6 March David Westwood claimed the act was behind the deletion.

But a senior information commissioner and an Association of Chief Police Officers member both raised concerns.

On Thursday the government said the inquiry, which is examining how Huntley was cleared to work at the school in Soham, would cost �2m.

Huntley, 29, was appointed as Soham Village College caretaker after checks on him showed no trace of the previous allegations, which included four suspected rapes.

There he murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002, but his past only emerged following his conviction in December last year. He has been jailed for life.

Second warning

On 17 December, Chief Constable David Westwood had issued a statement in which he said his force believed it was required to delete the files on the allegations against Huntley under the Data Protection Act.

When admitting he had misinterpreted the act earlier this month Mr Westwood revealed he had spoken to Assistant Information Commissioner David Smith.

COSTLY MURDER INVESTIGATION Soham police ask for extra �1.4m

But he did not say he had also spoken to the Acpo lead officer on sex offences, Terence Grange, before making the statement.

In his written evidence on Thursday Mr Smith revealed he had met Mr Grange on 4 December because the latter wanted to discuss Humberside's position.

In a statement he said: "He (Mr Grange) said that it seemed likely that David Westwood would seek to place responsibility for Humberside Police's deletion of information about Ian Huntley on the Data Protection Act.

"He was concerned and suggested that this would not be helpful to either the police or ourselves."

Mr Smith said he agreed and it was decided Mr Grange would speak to Mr Westwood but also that the Humberside chief would speak with Mr Smith.

In his live evidence, Mr Smith was asked if he understood that Mr Grange was to speak with Mr Westwood to "head the dispute off at the pass".

Mr Smith said: "That was my understanding. Mr Grange said he phoned Mr Westwood but my understanding was he was going to do a little more than that and, as you say, head Mr Westwood off."

Relief

Mr Smith was giving evidence along with Information Commissioner Richard Thomas who previously said he found Humberside's position "astonishing".

On Thursday Mr Thomas said: "I will not disguise from you the sense of relief that it was accepted in this particular case by the Chief Constable of Humberside... he now fully accepts that neither the legislation nor my office were in any way responsible for the deletion of these critical records."

I would imagine it is more than likely there will be, as a result of this inquiry, much sharper guidance given in the area of sexual offences Richard Thomas Information Commissioner

"It is very important to get that message across, that Data Protection was not responsible for this case."

Mr Thomas said a review was now expected into how long records concerning sex allegations and offences should be retained by police forces.

He told the inquiry: "Looking for the future, I would imagine it is more than likely there will be, as a result of this inquiry, much sharper guidance given in the area of sexual offences."

Chris Fox, president of Acpo, told the central London hearing that it was now thought Humberside Police was on target to hit a national deadline for the introduction of a national strategy for structuring police intelligence.