Inquiry launched into missing offender files
The Home Office has ordered an immediate inquiry after police chiefs revealed Britons jailed for serious crimes abroad could have been cleared to work with children in the UK.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said 25 Britons convicted of rapes abroad had not been put on the sexual offences register, because the Home Office had failed to transfer the information onto the national police computer.
Spokesman Paul Kernaghan, the chief constable of Hampshire police, told MPs on the home affairs select committee that about 27,500 cases had been sitting in files at the Home Office until Acpo took over management of the information last May.
The failure to input the details on the police computer means they would not have shown up when employers checked the criminal records bureau (CRB) when recruiting for work with vulnerable people and children.
Mr Kernaghan said the situation was “unacceptable”, noting that the list included 29 offences of paedophilia, 17 of other sexual offences and five murders. Acpo is now carrying out CRB checks on 525 serious offenders who may be working in the UK.
“Until the Acpo criminal records office was created, someone could go to Germany, commit a sexual offence and serve a sentence – and this would not be known to any police officer when they came back to the UK,” he said.
“It would not be known to the courts in the UK if they re-offended. That is a totally unacceptable position professionally and in terms of public protection.”
Shadow home secretary David Davis said the revelation was “disgraceful” but said it was “by no means the first of the government’s systems which have had major failures in the past few years”.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg accused the government of “administrative incompetence” and said the public were being put at risk.
“I dread to think what other scandals are lurking in the Home Office filing cabinets if 27,000 documents detailing such vital information can be simply left sitting on someone’s desk,” he said.
In a statement, the Home Office said this was a “serious issue that is now being remedied”. It said the issue had not been made public earlier because it was only brought to the attention of the home secretary and his ministers today.
“The permanent secretary has instigated a full and immediate inquiry,” it said.
“The home secretary has summoned the Association of Chief Police Officers and the criminal records bureau so he can satisfy himself that the public protection issues raised by this revelation are being properly addressed.”
