Further to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary's statement to Parliament on 16 January, I would like to provide an update to the House on the work that has been undertaken to deal with the issue of overseas convictions of UK citizens.

Members will recall that, during a Home Affairs Select Committee meeting on 9 January, it came to light that there was a backlog of files containing information about such convictions.

It was clear that that the existing systems were inadequate and the Home Secretary asked Sir David Normington to initiate an immediate inquiry to find out how the backlog arose and why it was not dealt with sooner. The inquiry was undertaken by Dusty Amroliwala and reported on 2 March. Sir David has acknowledged that there are lessons to be learned from the report in a number of key areas including working practices, risk management and leadership. The Home Office already has a comprehensive programme of reform in place and these lessons are being incorporated in that reform agenda.

In his statement to Parliament on 10 January, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said that we hoped to have dealt with the backlog within three months. I am pleased to be able to report that it was fully processed onto the Police National Computer (PNC) before the end of April. Copies of a report on the process and outcome have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses today.

As well as entering the offenders in the backlog onto the PNC, a range of checks and actions has been taken to help ensure the protection of the public. These include checks via the Criminal Records Bureau and with the Prison and Probation Services. This has been a UK-wide initiative and similar public protection processes have been carried out in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Full details are in the progress report.

We are very grateful to the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Criminal Records Bureau and the other organisations involved for all the support and assistance they have provided in processing the backlog and facilitating the public protection work.

Despite the positive progress we have made in this immediate area, we remain concerned about the complexity of the connected issues we face across Government and beyond. This is not helped by the differences in systems, procedures and criteria for recording information about criminality and using it for public protection purposes, both within this country and beyond the UK. The Home Secretary has therefore asked Sir Ian Magee to undertake a review, comprising two distinct parts. The first will focus on scoping the problems, assessing what deficiencies there are and where they lie. The second part will concentrate on conclusions and recommendations for improving the recording and sharing of criminality data, with a firm grounding in what is realistic and achievable.