Police have failed to implement key recommendations made after the Soham murders, five years after the deaths of the schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, according to a report published yesterday.

The proposals were part of a package of measures to make greater use of technology to monitor known dangerous people. A police database providing a “one-stop shop” where police could check on the background of offenders has been delayed until at least 2010 and the cost has doubled to £367 million.

The second key measure is a system for electronically sending court decisions - sentences, warrants and bail conditions - back to forces to be put on the police national computer.

Sir Ian Magee, who examined how information on criminals is collected and shared with the aim of protecting the public, said that the failure to implement the key Soham measures “was a matter of public concern”.

After the murders of 10-year-old Jessica and Holly in August 2002, a report by Sir Michael Bichard made 31 recommendations to the police, Home Office, Courts Service and other bodies. Nine remain unimplemented four years later and Sir Ian said: “The delay in full implementation means that we are still living with at least some of the risk.”

His report also highlights glaring omissions in the sharing of information about criminal convictions, intended to provide greater protection to the public, both within Britain and with the EU.

He also warned that there were “significant risks” involved by the failure of different organisations to make better use of the 77 watchlists in Britain containing details of criminals and suspects. Sir Ian added that having 77 different lists was “inefficient”.

He found that children and the elderly were being put at risk because foreigners gave false names when undergoing criminal records checks.

A total of 130 prosecutions of foreigners took place in the eight months to February after they were discovered working in the care industry and education sector. All of them had been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau to work with children and the elderly because they applied using a false identity, his report said.

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