More bad news for Home Office sex offenders lost

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) A week of dreadful headlines for Britain's Home Office continued today with a newspaper revealing that police had lost track of 322 registered sex offenders.

The News of the World said it had filed freedom of information act requests with all 50 of Britain's police forces asking how many registered sex offenders they had lost because they were no longer at their listed addresses.

The paper said 322 had gone missing, and said Home Office rules that allowed offenders to give vague addresses were one of the reasons. One sex offender had given his address as ''woods'' after changing it from ''a tent near Guildford leisure centre''.

The headlines will add to the political pressure on Home Secretary John Reid, who came under fire last week for writing to judges to tell them the jails were full and encourage them to spare non-violent offenders from prison.

Two judges cited Reid's letter and set paedophiles free.

Yesterday the Home Office acknowledged it had failed to revoke passports from 147 drug traffickers who should have been denied the right to travel abroad. Fifteen are missing.

In response to the sex offenders story, the Home Office said in a statement that day-to-day management of the register is a matter for the police.

''In the UK we have one of the most advanced systems in the world for monitoring and managing dangerous offenders,'' it said.

REUTERS DKA PM1646