The Crown Prosecution Service failed to run checks on 2,000 foreign crime suspects for more than a year - 11 of whom have committed crimes in the UK.
Last January the CPS was sent DNA details on a computer disc of 2,000 people wanted by Dutch police over crimes including murder and rape.
But it started running checks only this month and found 15 matches in the UK.
A major police operation has now begun to find the 15. The Tories accused the government of putting people at risk.
The DNA profiles were sent by Dutch police to London and other European capitals in January 2007 with a request to check if any of the suspects had moved to their countries.
Sick leave
The request was not acted on by the CPS until earlier this month when the British DNA database turned up 15 matches and found 11 of the suspects had committed crimes in Britain in the last 12 months.
An operation involving police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency has now begun to try to locate the individuals.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the Home Office had been told a week ago about the situation but was advised to say nothing to avoid jeopardising the police operation.
He said there was a suggestion that the information had been left on an official's desk while they were off on sick leave.
In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We can confirm that DNA profiles of around 2,000 unknown individuals were sent by a foreign jurisdiction to the CPS to facilitate a check against the national DNA database.
"These are profiles relating to unsolved crimes in that country."
It added: "As this information necessarily relates to ongoing police investigations, it would be inappropriate to provide any more detail at this stage."
'Serial failures'
The incident follows a series involving missing data, the biggest being the loss of 25m people's child benefit details.
Last month Defence Secretary Des Browne announced an inquiry after it emerged that a Royal Navy laptop containing 600,000 people's details had been stolen - and there had been two similar thefts since 2005.
And in December it emerged that details of three million British learner drivers, held on a computer hard drive, had gone missing in the US.
The CPS stressed this case was not "a data security issue", saying: "This information was always in the possession of the CPS."
Shadow home secretary David Davis told the BBC the government was guilty of "serial failures" on data.
"It is a serial failure that has put the British public at risk," he said.
(BBC)
<< Back