Select Committee on Home Affairs Additional Written Evidence


49.  Memorandum submitted by the Rt Hon John Reid MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department

  You will recall that I said during the course of my evidence session yesterday that caution should be attached to all of the information which I had been given to provide to the Committee. As if to confirm that statement, I am afraid that I have to write to you to correct information that I was supplied with in respect of the number of offenders currently detained in prison, and which I conveyed to your Committee.

  I reported to you, as I also set out in my Written Ministerial Statement, that four murderers and 23 other "most serious" offenders, including rapists and child sex offenders (who were amongst the 1,019 cases who were not considered for deportation before their release from prison) were now detained in prison. However, I was informed late last night that one of these murderers, one rapist and one child sex offender who were detained have in fact since been released on bail by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. In addition, I have now been told that eight other cases where the individual has been bailed, including four in the "more serious" category. I have been told that these bail applications were heard over the last 10 days and that more hearings are due to take place in the coming days.

  The decision to release on bail is a decision properly for the tribunal judge. I cannot and do not hold officials responsible for the judgement to grant bail in these cases. However, to be put in a position where information was wrongly given to your Committee—in spite of the caveats that I put around that information—is not acceptable and I apologise to you and to your Committee.

  I have spent this morning confirming the above facts as best I can, but feel that I should now write to you at the earliest possible time to rectify the mistaken information given. In the meantime, I have asked the Department for another re-check of all the figures provided to you yesterday.

  In addition, and due to the seriousness of this matter, my Permanent Secretary David Normington and my Director General of IND Lin Homer have decided to take immediate management action to remove one senior civil servant from his current duties and to advance the plans to change significantly the duties of another. This action is separate from the investigation into the overall failure to consider the 1,019 prisoners for deportation which I told your Committee yesterday that I had asked the Director-General of IND to carry out once the immediate priority of dealing with the 1,019 cases had been addressed.

24 May 2006



 
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