Northamptonshire Police has so far issued no fines for failure to wear a face mask

Northamptonshire Police is on a list of 31 other forces in England that has not yet issued a penalty for failing to wear a face masks.

A study by marketing agency Reboot Digital has revealed that since it became law to wear a face covering in shops, the entire of England's police force has only issued three penalties worth a total of £300.

Out of 40 forces in the country who were asked through a freedom of information request, 31 replied they had not yet issued one since it became law on July 24. Six of them - including Northamptonshire Police - did not respond to the request in time.

The Northants force has now confirmed it has not yet issued any penalties as of October 6.

You can report breaches of coronavirus legislation, including around the misuse of face coverings, HERE.

It comes after the county's Chief Constable Nick Adderley tweeted in July that his officers "won't be attending calls about people failing to wear a face covering" so priority could be given to other crimes.

Chief Adderley said in July: "We will not be patrolling every outlet in Northamptonshire and are relying on people following the rules.

“If people have concerns about shoppers not wearing face coverings, we ask they report the incident online, rather than contact our control room, to allow our call handlers to answer emergency calls.”

Meanwhile, at a press conference on September 25, assistant chief constable Simon Blatchly said at the time the force had only been prompted to take enforcement action against breaches of the Rule of Six on three occasions, and all in that week.

ACC Blatchly said: "We will be stepping up and enforcing more than we have done. There is an argument that this has been going on for six months and people should be aware.

"We will be proportionate, but where we have clear and flagrant breaches we will now be stepping up action."