The fan has been hit.

The Beeb reports that police chiefs have said British criminals may have been cleared to work with vulnerable people in the UK after committing serious crimes abroad. Some 525 British criminals may have applied for jobs back in the UK.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says details of 27,529 cases, including 25 Britons convicted of rape, were left in files at the Home Office.

The cases involved included:

25 rapes

3 attempted rapes

29 paedophiles

17 other sex offenders

5 murders

9 attempted murders

13 manslaughter convictions

29 robberies

"The home secretary and the current ministers were not told about this issue of the backlog," quotes Joan Ryan, Home Office minister.

Read that again....

Someone was told about it then? Who?

Here's how the Home Office likes to be seen...

The Home Office works to build a safe, just and tolerant society, by putting protection of the public at the heart of everything it does.

To protect the public, we focus on six key objectives:

1. protecting the UK from terrorist attack
2. cutting crime, especially violent and drug-related crime
3. ensuring people feel safer in their homes and daily lives, particularly through more visible, responsive and accountable local policing
4. rebalancing the criminal justice system in favour of the law-abiding majority and the victim
5. managing offenders to protect the public and reduce re-offending
6. securing our borders, preventing abuse of our immigration laws and managing migration to benefit the UK.

Someone's missing their stated TARGETS methinks!