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| Crime record backlog 'a failure' | Crime record backlog 'a failure' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The Home Office suffered a "collective failure" to recognise the significance of a backlog of records of Britons convicted abroad, a report has found. | The Home Office suffered a "collective failure" to recognise the significance of a backlog of records of Britons convicted abroad, a report has found. |
| The inquiry said ministers were not told about the failure to update police computers over a 10-year period. | The inquiry said ministers were not told about the failure to update police computers over a 10-year period. |
| The report was launched after the discovery of a backlog of 27,000 cases, including hundreds of serious offences. | |
| The Home Office said it "welcomed the report" and was determined to "learn its lessons". | The Home Office said it "welcomed the report" and was determined to "learn its lessons". |
| The report was commissioned by the department's Permanent Secretary, Sir David Normington, after it emerged that details of 27,529 cases were left in files at the Home Office. | |
| These included 540 serious crimes such as rape, murder and robbery which were not entered onto the Police National Computer. | |
| 'Regrettable' | |
| Home Secretary John Reid and his ministers had previously claimed they were not notified about the case files which were left unprocessed for a number of years. | |
| Home Office senior personnel director Dusty Amroliwala, who headed the inquiry, concluded the lack of action was "difficult to understand and very regrettable". | |
| But, he said: "I have found no evidence that the existence of the accumulated records or their content were brought to ministerial attention at any time prior to 9 January 2007." | |
| There had been a significant number of opportunities for officials to tell ministers of the problem, he added. | |
| But plans to inform ministers were "diverted" on at least two occasions in the previous six months, because of other events and "an absence of lateral thinking" by civil servants, the report said. | |
| Sir David welcomed the report but said the department had already moved on from the "picture painted in the report". | |
| But he added he was "determined that we should learn its lessons". | |
| He said new measures were in place for assessing risks to the public and for informing senior managers and ministers. | |
| "And we now need to go further and faster to achieve greater accountability, better performance and higher standards in every part of the Home Office," he added. |