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It added: “You did not fully appreciate the vulnerable position you put yourself in”.

Mr Reeve was suspended by the school and later resigned after Norfolk police raised their concerns with the head. It had not been contacted by the DfES about Mr Reeve’s case.

Sir Chris Fox, the chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers and a former chief constable, made clear that the police would not take the blame if more offenders were found in schools. He said ministers should take responsibility.

“There are criteria for entry to List 99. If those criteria are overruled the person making that decision will have to be able to explain their reasons for doing so and take responsibility for the behaviour of that individual,” he said.

Sir Michael Bichard, who led the investigation into the Soham murders called for the establishment of a single list of individuals who were a risk to children. His inquiry had not considered a link between List 99 and the sex offenders register because Ian Huntley, the school caretaker who murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, had not been on the register.

Ms Kelly, in a television interview, refused to say how many cases had been found. DfES officials refused to give any details of when the cases were dealt with and whether any teachers on the sex offenders register were now employed in schools.

The Education Secretary said in a written Commons statement: “Initial inquiries indicate that there have been a small number of cases where ministers have made the decision not to include on List 99 an individual on the sex offenders register.

“I have . . . decided to commission as a matter of urgency an exhaustive review of all such cases since the introduction of the sex offenders register, the decision-making process surrounding such cases and any immediate policy implications.”

The DfES has refused to say which minister dealt with Mr Reeve’s case. Ms Kelly has formal responsibility but the power is usually delegated to the School Standards Minister.

Stephen Twigg, the responsible minister at that time, has said that he had no involvement with Mr Reeve’s case. He has suggested that a duty minister at the DfES took the decision during the general election campaign, in which he lost his seat.

TALE OF TWO LISTS

SEX OFFENDERS REGISTER
28,994 offenders listed for at least three years by police. Comprises all convicted or cautioned for sex offences in the UK, those convicted of a sex offence abroad and anyone convicted of a sex offence before November 1995 and currently in jail.

LIST 99
About 15,000 listed. Automatic ban if a person rapes, has sex with, indecently assaults or distributes indecent pictures of under 16s. At Education Secretary’s discretion if convicted of violence, drugs or theft, has inappropriate pupil relations, misleads a school over qualifications or is jailed for more than a year.

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