More than 27,500 cases were left "sitting in desk files" in the Home Office rather than being properly examined, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said.

They include 25 Britons convicted of rape in other European countries, five murderers and 29 paedophiles.

The details of more than 500 serious offenders are currently being checked by the Criminal Records Bureau, which verifies people who apply to work with children, to see if they have applied for such jobs since returning to Britain.

An inquiry by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee into justice and home affairs issues at European Union level heard today how a new system was set up last May to rectify the situation.

Paul Kernaghan, Acpo spokesman, told MPs that the situation had been "totally unacceptable."

“Until the Acpo criminal records office was created, someone could go to Germany, commit a sexual offence and serve a sentence - and this would not be known to any police officer when they came back to the UK," Mr Kernaghan said.

“It would not be known to the courts in the UK if they re-offended. That is a totally unacceptable position professionally and in terms of public protection.”

He continued: “The information was sitting in desk files and not entered on the PNC. That is now being addressed and they are working their way through putting serious offenders on a risk-assessed basis on the PNC.”

A total of 27,529 documents were found to contain details of British nationals who had been convicted of crimes abroad. These included 25 rapists and three people convicted of attempted rape; 29 paedophiles, as well as another 17 other sex offenders; five murderers; nine people convicted of attempted murder and 13 of manslaughter; and 29 convicted of robbery.

An Acpo document said: “The majority of these serious foreign convictions of UK nationals were not on the PNC and we have no DNA, fingerprints or photographs.

“None of the 25 UK nationals convicted of rape had been made subject of the sex offenders register.”

It went on: “If these particular offenders had been subject of checks for employment through the CRB, the search would have returned a ‘no trace’.

“Arrangements have been made to have a list of 525 serious offenders checked against the CRB system to establish if any have applied for employment within the UK.”

The information from 15 countries, mainly EU member states, had previously been received by the Home Office’s UK Central Authority for Mutual Legal Assistance, said Acpo. Its responsibilities were transferred to Acpo on May 21 last year, when it set up the new UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records.

Bill Hughes, director general of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, told the inquiry that Britain joining the European data-sharing agreement, known as the Schengen Information System, would benefit police forces across the country.

However, this would require the UK to end all border restrictions on EU travellers, a move which has so far been rejected by the Government.

“We understand the issues of sovereignty and so on, but the other side of that is we are denied intelligence,” Mr Hughes said.

A Home Office spokeswoman said that John Reid, Home Secretary, and other ministers were unaware of the "backlog" until today.

She added that Sir David Normington, permanent secretary, has ordered a "full and immediate inquiry" into the circumstances and that Mr Reid had "summoned" senior police officers.

David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “Of itself this is disgraceful but it is by no means the first of the Government’s systems which have had major failures in the past few years - whether it is the Police National Computer, the Criminal Records Bureau or the Sex Offender Register.

“The Home Office has got to learn to walk before it can run, to get the basics right. Any other approach just puts the public at risk.”

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “Once again, Home Office ineptitude has left the police and the public in the lurch.

“I dread to think what other scandals are lurking in the Home Office filing cabinets if 27,000 documents detailing such vital information can be simply left sitting on someone’s desk.”

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