Home Office Admission Reveals Yet More Incompetence

1.12.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd May 2007

Responding to the government's admission that the number of serious criminal records from overseas which the Home Office failed to process is four times higher than previously thought, local Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate, Richard Burt said: "Yet again we discover that another Home Office statistic is wildly inaccurate."

"The true scale of the overseas offences scandal is far beyond that claimed by ministers at the time.

"Why did the Home Secretary claim that only 500 serious offenders were involved when we now know the figure is four times as high?

"Once again, the public is left wondering why it takes so long for the truth to come out on issues of vital importance to public safety.

"It is worth remembering that the government sought to claim that this bungling only came to light because they were taking action whilst other European governments sat on their hands.

"These figures show that with the benefit of hindsight, those excuses were lamentably complacent and wide of the mark."