One in five sets of statistics collected or collated by the department have been found to be inadequate, MPs were told.

Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, apologised for providing misleading figures on antisocial behaviour orders to the National Audit Office. He said that as part of the Home Secretary’s reform programme for the department a review had been conducted into 160 sets of data.

Sir David said: “Since the summer we have gone through 160 data sets and given them a star system from three to nought for their reliability. We are looking actively at the 30 data sets that are not up to scratch.”

Among figures gathered by the department to underpin significant areas of national policy are those on asylum, immigration, crime and antisocial behaviour. Sir David did not disclose to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee which sets of figures had been found to be inadequate but the department will publish today an action plan to improve immigration statistics.

Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, had to withdraw race attack statistics last year after inaccuracies were found and John Reid also had to admit that figures he had given to MPs on the foreign national prisoner scandal had been inaccurate.

Sir David’s latest revelation of poor performance will further damage morale among officials in a department about which Mr Reid was scathing when he took over as Home Secretary. He is still furious about the row over the 27,500 backlog of British citizens with convictions abroad, which has led to the supsension of a senior official.

Sir David repeatedly refused to identify the official who has been suspended. He said that there had been enough evidence to suspend the civil servant, but there was no concrete proof that the individual had done anything wrong.

Sir David insisted that he was in full control of his department but admitted that he had found out about the 27,500 backlog only at the same time as ministers a week ago.

Ministers rejected Conservative demands in the Commons for an independent inquiry into the criminal records problem. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that it was inappropriate for a civil servant to carry out the inquiry.

“The public want the police to be able to do their job and as a result they want to know three things: what has gone wrong in this fiasco, who is responsible and what is going to be done about it?” he said. “Since this may involve ministerial decisions, it is entirely inappropriate for a civil servant to carry out the inquiry.

Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, said that the Home Office admitted that he could not say with confidence that every criminal record from every source was on the police national computer.

Lord Triesman, a Foreign and Commmonwealth Office minister, has been appointed the Prime Minister’s special envoy on returning failed asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants to their home countries. His job is to reach deals with foreign governments to accept back their citizens.

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