Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel arrives in Downing Street in central London ... [+]
The U.K. Home Office has blamed a “software bug” for the accidental deletion of 150,000 fingerprint, DNA and arrest records from a national police database.
The issue was first reported by The Times, which says that "crucial intelligence about suspects" had vanished as a result of the glitch and that Britain's visa system has been thrown into disarray as a result, with the processing of applications suspended for two days.
Sources told the newspaper that the arrest records were accidentally deleted during a weekly “weeding” session to expunge data.
The report also suggests that the mass deletion, which has been attributed to a software bug rather than a deliberate error, could allow offenders to go free because evidence from crime scenes will not be flagged on the Police National Computer (PNC).
The Home Office said in a statement that the “technical issue with the PNC has been resolved” and that it is “working at pace” with law enforcement partners to assess its impact.
"The issue related to people arrested and released where no further action had been taken and no records of criminal or dangerous persons have been deleted,” it added. “No further records can be deleted."
Labour's Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to take responsibility for the blunder and provide clarity over its impact.
"The Home Secretary must take responsibility for this serious problem. She must - urgently - make a statement about what has gone wrong, the extent of the issue, and what action is being taken to reassure the public. Answers must be given," Mr Thomas-Symonds said in a statement.
"This is an extraordinarily serious security breach that presents huge dangers for public safety.
"The incompetence of this shambolic Government cannot be allowed to put people at risk, let criminals go free and deny victims justice."
The error, which one source described as “catastrophic’ to The Times, comes after around 40,000 alerts relating to European criminals were removed from the PNC database following Britain's post-Brexit deal with the EU.
