They're at it again

[CarlMetro]

The UK Home Office yesterday admitted that there are 525 Brits who have commited serious offences abroad, including 5 murderers, 27 rapists and 29 paedophiles, who have no criminal record in the UK because 27,000 documents detailing convictions, sentences etc which should have been included onto the Police National Computer have just been sitting gathering dust.

This comes just a week after the Home Office admitted that the were 'in excess' of 600 prisoners who should be in open prisons but have absconeded and whose whereabouts was not certain.

And all of this just 9 months after the Charles Clarke debarcle.

Time for change?

[Dave B]

Chopping and changing the minister in charge is all well and good when you want to create headlines and project the illusion that things are improving, but for the chaotic situation in the Home Office to get better it needs a leader who's not afraid to uncover mistakes and incompetence, rather than worrying about the department's public image.

If John Reid is discovering failings then he's doing his job. Of course, ideally there'd be no such failings in the first place, but the fact that they're being publicised rather than excused is a good start.

I'd say give Reid time to do his job. Installing somebody else would effectively undo all of his work. Nine months isn't anywhere near enough time to change the mindset and working practices of an organisation that vast.

I haven't seen the tabs today, but I bet there are some sensationalist "Home Office frees paedos" headlines. That's unless something interesting hapenned on Big Brother last night, in which case substitute that with "Danielle in three-syllable word shocker" :s

[Ian McC]

The Home Office is obviously a mess and needs a big overhaul, would probably make more sense for people to stop trying to make political capital out of it and sit down and sort it out.

[Hazell B]

From what I've gathered, Reid didn't know about this latest problem according to his office. Fair enough.

But I knew about it when some top police guy was talking about the chronic lack of cash to complete files and checks was on breakfast TV a few months ago and he said his men where worried huge gaps would appear in the system.

Won't say I understood what those gaps are or where, but in Reid's job must surely include asking ......

I hope he sticks with the job, to be fair. Another couple of total 'misunderstandings' like this and more cash will flow before the election. Improvments should then be made. Fingers crossed we're not the ones murdered by this current crop of thugs, though :mark:

[CarlMetro]

Reid and his cronies say they olny found out about this problem on Tuesday, however a statement from the police issued this morning claims that the Home Office were told of the problem back in October, which one should we believe?

[Hazell B]

On last night's TV news it said the police sent an email which said "... and Mr Reid should be advised on this ...." to Reid's office and it was read and replied to. I believe them, there's no point in making it up when it could so easily be proved.

[Ian McC]

I don't expect they will stump up enough cash to sort this mess out.

[FrankenSchwinn]

The UK Home Office yesterday admitted that there are 525 Brits who have commited serious offences abroad, including 5 murderers, 27 rapists and 29 paedophiles, who have no criminal record in the UK because 27,000 documents detailing convictions, sentences etc which should have been included onto the Police National Computer have just been sitting gathering dust.

This comes just a week after the Home Office admitted that the were 'in excess' of 600 prisoners who should be in open prisons but have absconeded and whose whereabouts was not certain.

And all of this just 9 months after the Charles Clarke debarcle.

Time for change?

well, these are the numbers of the ones that got caught, so don't worry, i'm sure there are more british pedophiles than that :p :

[LotusElise]

Surely it can't be that difficult to keep tabs on prisoner numbers! A simple head count revealing a lower number of inmates than the official prison roll should be enough. Surely?

I don't think that sacking John Reid is the answer really, especially as that would just create more fuss and expense and divert resources which should be being used to sort this out.