Clarke insists 'I will not quit' Clarke interview The home secretary has said he will not resign after it emerged 1,023 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation. Charles Clarke said he did not know where most of the people, who include three murderers and nine rapists, were.
He admitted a growth in foreign prisoners had led to the Home Office taking its "eye off the ball".
The Lib Dems have accused ministers of incompetence. The Tories are demanding Mr Clarke answer to Parliament.
Drug importers
Mr Clarke said the 1,023 prisoners, who were released between February 1999 and last month, should have been considered for deportation or removal.
The Home Office later revealed that of those, 288 were released from prison between August 2005 and March - suggesting the problem continued after it had been raised with the government.
The National Audit Office told ministers last July that preparations to remove foreign criminals from the UK should begin "much earlier" and not be left until the end of their prison sentences.

On Tuesday evening a Home Office spokesman said: "Additional resources were directed to this, but the system continued to identify more cases than we could consider.
"Now there are sufficient resources, and we are confident no further convicted foreign nationals will be released in this way."
Mr Clarke had said the failure leading to the 1,023 releases was "deeply regrettable" and conceded that people would be angered by the oversight.
So far the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) has located 107 of the total, leading to 20 deportations.
Among the offenders, five had been convicted of committing sex offences on children, seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 for violent offences and two for manslaughter.
There were also 41 burglars, 20 drug importers, 54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault.
The Home Office said it did not have full details of offences committed by more than 100 of the criminals, but 237 were failed asylum seekers and 54 were still having their asylum applications considered.
More than 870 were serving at least 12 months and 13 were serving more than 10 years.



Richard Bacon, a Conservative member of the cross-party Commons Public Accounts Committee, who asked the questions last October which led to the Home Office bungle being uncovered, said he feared "incompetence" was to blame.
He said there had "a dereliction of duty" by the Home Office and the Prison Service to ask whether foreign prisoners, who may not have the right to be in the UK, should be deported.
Pressed by the BBC to explain why he should not resign, Mr Clarke said: "I certainly don't think I have a duty to the public to go - I have a duty to sort this out.
"It is a massive issue and it's true to say, with the vast growth of foreign national prisoners, we took our eye off the ball.
"The first priority at this moment is to get the situation under control - that is what I'm focusing on.
"We don't know exactly where everybody is ... I know where about 100 of those 1,000 now are and we are going through the most urgent cases."
'Extraordinary'
But Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the chances of tracking down large numbers of released prisoners was "remote".
Mr Clarke, who is likely to make a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, following calls by Speaker Michael Martin, said the Prison Service and IND had "failed to carry out their responsibilities in the way they ought to have done".
But he said both had taken steps "to lead me to be confident that it is now being done properly".
However, Shadow Home Secretary David Davis accused Mr Clarke of trying to "smuggle out" the news rather than face MPs' questions.
"At the end of the day it's not good enough to blame officials, frankly it is a issue which affects the safety of the British public," he said.
He did not think Mr Clarke should consider his position as the problems began before his time in the job.
'Full confidence'
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said it was "extraordinary" that so many people convicted of serious offences had "simply disappeared".
"All the government's tough talk on crime counts for nothing in the face of this incompetence," he said.
Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said he was "very, very shocked" by the news but he did not think Mr Clarke should resign.
Downing Street says Tony Blair has "full confidence" in both Mr Clarke and Mr McNulty.
"It is unreasonable to expect ministers to know what is going on in every nook and cranny in their department," said Mr Blair's official spokesman.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett called the problems "astonishing". "My view is that heads should roll," he said.
"There are too many people in the system who simply don't care. I fully support Charles Clarke in getting to the bottom of this."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4944164.stm

Question: Do "foreign ex-prisoners" pose more of a threat to the general public then "British ex-prisoners"?

It doesn’t matter that criminals are criminals regardless of their origin

The phrase foreign criminals running free appeals to the universal suppressed fear of the other.



This has just been handed to the bnp on a plate….what for it …

It'sinteresting how the mediarelease shock news about foreigners just a week before the elections. I wish they would just stop insulting people's intelligence: they wax lyrical everytime about how evil the BNP are and why they shouldn't be voted for, yet they subtely push forth the sameagenda and promote them through news like this.

Then they continuously post pics of Nick Griffin and hiscohorts and claim how the majority (55%) of the British public are starting to vote for the far right because of the illegal 'crisis'. The BNP wouldn't have got this much publicity if Nick Griffin signed a record deal with G Unit.

They only want to cause a knee-jerk reaction in order for public support of the BNP so their white supremacist agenda will be served.

The Home Office said it did not have full details of offences committed by more than 100 of the criminals...

Thats strange because the police and courts would have record of every offence.

babygirl44 wrote: An "evil" man has admitted repeatedly raping a nine-year-old girl while he was on the Sex Offenders' Register and under supervision in the community. Kevin Hazelwood, 40, of Oriental Place, Brighton, Sussex, was told by Lewes Crown Court that he must serve a minimum of five years and seven months.



He was on a sex offenders' treatment programme at the time of the attacks."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4926482.stm



"The probation service has suspended four officers after a report found "collective failure" in the handling of two criminals who killed John Monckton. The report, into how the pair came to kill the London banker in 2004, said probation staff had failed to reduce the risk the men posed to the public."



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4757414.stm



I ask again: Do foreign ex-prisoners" pose more of a threat to the general public then "British ex-prisoners"?

The guy should absolutely go

whether they pose more of a threat or not is niether here nor there. Procedures are procedures

You can tell by the meek manner in which charles clark has responded that he knows he 'drop the ball' big time

I wish people would stop linking everything to racism and stop showing victim mentality. Tjis whole situation could have been avoided and like Cashmoney said the man needs to go because if I made such an error in my job, I would have been sacked long time.

@Newstyle.

Yes somepeople who are monitored fall through the net but not often which is why they make the news. At least in those cases the authiorities tried to make even a feeble effort to do the job that the tax payer is paying them for. In the case of thecriminals whowere supposed to be deported, there are no records of them in many cases, let alone a tag or any form of monitoring so they are totallyfree to start where they left off. We need to stop defending these criminals regardless of whether we think they are treated unfairly because they are foreignand start to think about their future victims because rapists and peadophiles will try again if they think they can get away with it.

This morning the Home Office added another 1000 to the list. What's the betting they have blended into the major cities. There is already more than enough criminals here without the authorities importing more. This mistake is going to be used by the far-right and many innocentforiegnerswill be treated with suspicion or even attacked. It will also beused by the pro-ID cardlobbyas an example as to why we should have them andthey will probably be introduced even quicker now. Our civil liberties are going to be further eroded because of My Clarkesincompetence and I want him to go and let someone who can do the job take over.

babygirl44 wrote: This is the point, erosion of civil liberties, introduction of ID cards and the fear of the "other" the foreigner. This is yet another example of a climate of fear, they wish people to be in. I don't care about the incompetent home secretary, he can stay or go, and another incompetent fool will only replace him. The way this has been reported, suggests "foreign" criminals are a bigger threat then "home grown" ones, which is plain nonsense. The majority of crime is "home grown", Britain exports paedophiles to places like Thailand, Vietnam and Ghana, rather then import them. Most victims know their murderer or rapist who is usually a lover or husband, a relative or friend. Even terrorism like 7/7 or the nail bomber is "home grown". This story like the other one about the police "losing the battle against "foreign" gangs, are here to create this climate of fear, that allows the authorities to take away more of our civil liberties.