One murderer and eight rapists or child sex offenders are still at large three weeks after the Home Office disclosed the freed foreign prisoner fiasco.

Police and the probation service have been unable to track down the murderer and eight other most serious foreign offenders who were not considered for deportation on release from jail.

John Reid disclosed that the number of foreign criminals convicted of more serious offenders is now more than two times higher than the original figure issued by Charles Clarke, his predecessor at the Home Office.

Within the overall figure the number of murderers, rapists and paedophiles had increased since the first figures were given three weeks ago.

Mr Reid’s admission that a murderer and sexual offenders remain at large is a serious blow to the Government as it undermines that system under which they are released from jail.

Murderers are freed on life licence enabling so that authorities know where they are and rapists and child sex offenders are required to register on the sex offenders register for life if given a jail term of more than 30 months.

A total of 1,023 foreign national prisoners were released from jails in England and Wales between 1999-2005 without being considered for deportation.

Mr Reid updated MPs with the latest figures which showed that the number serious offenders has risen from 79 to 150 and has now reached 179.

He said he had redefined the more serious offences to include crimes involving violence, a sexual element or armed robbery.

Mr Reid said: "Progress continues to be made in the operation to deal with the released foreign prisoners. The operation is prioritising the serious cases first."

The number of murderers has risen from three to four, rapists from nine to 14 and paedophiles have trebled from five to fifteen.

He said that 57 of the 179 more serious offenders had been reconvicted of a further offence and that 19 of these involved crimes involving a violent or sexual element.

But only nine of the nineteen were more serious than the original offence for which the foreigner was jailed, Mr Reid told MPs in a written Commons statement.

The Home Office was unable to say if there had been an increase in the number of actual deportations of foreign nationals from the original figure of 20 announced three weeks ago.

Mr Reid said that all 1023 foreign nationals had been assessed and deportation proceedings started in 880 cases. In 649 cases an initial decision had been taken to deport an foreign national meaning that about 231 are likely to remain in the country.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman said: "This is the fourth time that the figures have changed dramatically.

"The ‘discovery’ of ten more paedophiles, five more rapists and another murderer, three weeks after the initial revelations, does nothing to inspire confidence that the situation is improving.

"The more time civil servants spend looking into their files, the worse the problem is revealed to be".

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, asked the Home Secretary when he would meet the Prime Minister's promise to deport any foreign national serving a prison sentence automatically.

He said the Prime Minister had engaged in "overblown rhetoric", not reality.

Mr Reid said he wanted to make sure any foreign national serving a "significant" jail term would be automatically deported. But after five days in his new job he could not give any timings.

He said he also planned to return to Parliament shortly to set out his view of the problems facing the Home Office, some of which had existed for "decades".

Fiasco in numbers

1,023 foreign national prisoners released without consideration for deportation.

179 convicted of more serious offences.

35 convicted of most serious including murder, rape or child sex offences.

57 of the more serious offenders have been reconvicted since their release.

19 have committed crimes involving violence or a sexual element since release.

20 foreign national prisoners deported to date.

880 deportation proceedings commenced.

1 murderer at large.

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