Red-faced Reid admits to new Home Office error

[Neil D]

[:"green"]Ok, all you non-american citizens of the world...whatcha think about this? [/]

By Philip Johnston Home Affairs Editor

(Filed: 25/05/2006)

The Home Office was plunged into fresh chaos last night when John Reid, the new Home Secretary, had to admit that a foreign murderer he told MPs was in jail has been released on bail.

A rapist, a child sex offender and eight other criminals had also been released. Mr Reid had to endure the same embarrassment that cost his predecessor, Charles Clarke, his job by apologising for giving incorrect information to Parliament about the whereabouts of overseas criminals freed from jail but not deported.

John Reid: apology

Two senior officials in his department are being removed from their duties but neither has been sacked. Mr Reid had left himself an escape route when he gave evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday by saying that the MPs should "attach caution" to all the information he had received from officials.

In his two weeks in the department, he had hardly received any figures that did not subsequently need revising. He had told the committee that four murderers and 23 of the "most serious" offenders who were among the 1,019 original prisoners released without being considered for deportation had been rearrested and were in jail.

However, that night Mr Reid was told that one of the murderers, a rapist and a child sex offender had been released on bail by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.

Eight others had also been bailed, including four in the "most serious" category. Other hearings are pending.

An extraordinary aspect of this latest debacle was that the bail hearings had been going on for 10 days - yet officials did not tell the Home Secretary despite the huge political controversy surrounding the issue.

Mr Reid said matters of bail were for the tribunal judge and he did not hold his officials responsible for court decisions, however bizarre. But in letters to John Denham, the committee chairman, and to the Commons Speaker, he added: "To be put in a position where information was wrongly given... is not acceptable and I apologise."

This latest in a succession of blunders infuriated Mr Reid, who in evidence to the select committee denounced the IND as "not fit for purpose". He said the immigration system was "inadequate in terms of its scope, inadequate in terms of its information technology, leadership, management, systems and processes".

He promised "a fundamental overhaul" and indicated that some officials could lose their jobs. Mr Reid was also asked if the four murderers who should have been deported had been detained pending their removal. He said: "We have all the murderers. The four murderers are in prison." Ann Cryer, Labour MP for Keighley, said: "So there is no problem there?" Mr Reid: "Not as long as we keep them in prison, but do not hold your breath."

He was unaware that bail hearings had been going on for almost a fortnight and, although the applications had been opposed by Home Office lawyers, the tribunal had released one murderer and the other offenders.

Officials said Mr Reid had now instructed that further bail applications should be "opposed as vigorously as possible".

The latest revelations were greeted with incredulity at Westminster. Mr Denham, a former Home Office minister, said they were "extraordinary". He had never known facts relevant to such a high-profile issue being withheld from a minister.

Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the senior civil servants' union, the First Division Association, said officials were accountable for their own direct actions but added: "The current problems being experienced in the Home Office will not be resolved by attempts to scapegoat any individual."

James Clappison, the Tory MP for Hertsmere and a member of the home affairs committee, said: "It is very worrying from the point of view of protecting the public that they have so little grasp of what is going on. We need to be satisfied that they are doing everything possible to find these people."