Jack Straw has begun an urgent inquiry into allegations that hundreds of criminals, including sex offenders, have escaped prosecution because warrants were not issued when they failed to turn up at court.

Mr Straw told MPs he had asked three inspectorates — those covering the courts, police and Crown Prosecution Service — to conduct a “thorough inspection” of warrant processes at Leeds Magistrates’ Court over the recording of case outcomes, principally between 1997 and 2003.

The inquiry follows reports that criminals have avoided being brought to trial because warrants were not issued for the arrests of those who failed to appear in court.

In a written ministerial statement to MPs, Mr Straw said that two issues of concern had been identified at Leeds.

These related to the recording of outcomes of cases between 1997 and 2003 and subsequently in the case of recordable offences, updating the Police National Computer (PNC).

The other is centred on the process used for withdrawing warrants issued by the court for the arrest of defendants who fail to appear, he added.

The problems at Leeds are said to mean that hundreds of criminals who failed to appear for their court case may have escaped further action. Their absence should have triggered an arrest warrant, but in these cases the police were not informed.

Mr Straw said: “The investigations will verify the number of cases involved, the breakdown of offences and the position regarding the Police National Computer.”

Mr Straw said a “continuing issue” was identified at Leeds after a national review “about the effectiveness of processes for recording the 2.2 million cases dealt with in the magistrates’ court each year.”

As part of that, a further problem was identified “with an historical process dating back to 2003 to withdraw old Failure to Appear warrants that had been agreed by the court, the CPS and the police.

“Although the withdrawal of warrants is entirely appropriate in certain circumstances, the process used in Leeds needs to be investigated,” he said.

The withdrawal of warrants, which was reported to ministers last week, was of particular concern.

“It is for that reason that I have asked the inspectors to review all of these matters to provide me with independent assurance that the issues have been dealt with appropriately and whether there are any national lessons that we should learn from experience in Leeds.”

Mr Straw said that an experienced judge, appointed by a senior presiding judge, would conduct an independent investigation of the judicial responsibilities of legal advisers at Leeds Magistrates’ Court.

He said that after the two reviews, he would be able to “assess whether further national actions need to be taken, including improvements to the resulting process”.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, some of the cases were written off and the suspects avoided prosecution.

Mr Straw said: “HMCS has worked with the police to improve performance and, for the first time, the joint target of having 75 pr cent of all case results entered on the PNC within ten days of the court hearing was met in July 2007 and has been maintained.

“We have also improved the enforcement of warrants. From August 2004 until June 2007 there was a 54 per cent reduction in the number of outstanding warrants.

“Latest data indicates that the number of warrants withdrawn per month has fallen by more than 30 per cent since the same period in 2005.

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