The Liberal Democrats today accused John Reid of failing to meet his deadline for the investigation into the Home Office’s backlog of tens of thousands of files on offences committed by Britons abroad that were not added to the police database.

The scandal was revealed on 9^th January. The next day John Reid made a statement to the house saying a full investigation would be complete ‘within six weeks.’ That deadline passed yesterday.

The investigation was used as the reason for not publishing a letter from the Association of Chief Police Officers that reportedly raised the problem. A Freedom of Information request from the Liberal Democrats to release the correspondence was sent on January 11^th, but there has been no written response, despite the legal requirement of meeting a February 8^th deadline.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:

"The Government has no right to stonewall any more on an issue of such overwhelming public interest.

"It is simply adding insult to injury that John Reid refuses to come clean with the public on how these 27,500 files managed to slip through the system altogether.

"John Reid must honour his clear undertaking to report fully within six weeks, and publish immediately the letters from ACPO to the Home Office on this matter."