Mr Straw told MPs his department was urgently working with the Department of Health on changes in the "law and practice" of psychiatrists.

He accused them of interpreting the law too narrowly.

Dr Robert Kendall accuses Jack Straw of ignorance

But Dr Robert Kendall, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, claimed the problem was caused by the mental health laws.

He said there was nothing more that the profession could have done in the Stone case.

Jack Straw: Time for psychiatrists to examine themselves

Stone was given three life sentences on Friday for the murder of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan and the attempted murder of Megan's sister Josie in 1996.

An independent inquiry has been launched after it emerged that Stone, who had a long history of mental problems and violence, was refused a bed in a secure psychiatric hospital only days before he attacked the Russells.

The Home Secretary said: "It's time frankly that the psychiatric profession seriously examined their own practices and tried to modernise them in a way that they have so far failed to do."

Alan Beith asks Home Secretary if further measures are needed

Mr Straw was answering a question from Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Alan Beith.

He asked: "Do you believe that further measures will be needed to deal with offenders who are deemed to be extremely violent because of mental illness or personality disorder - but who psychiatrists diagnose as not likely to respond to treatment?"

Beith: Not just Stone's treatment at fault

The issue had arisen not simply following the conviction of Michael Stone for the murder of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell, Mr Beith said.

There was a tendency in recent years for psychiatrists to diagnose a number of violent people as not likely to respond to treatment, he concluded.

Mr Straw said: "One of the problems that has arisen here is a change in the practice of the psychiatric profession, which, 20 years ago, was adopting what I would say was a common-sense approach to serious and dangerous persistent offenders and these days have gone for a much narrower interpretation of the law.

"Quite extraordinarily for a medical profession they've said they will only take on those patients they regard as treatable.

"If that philosophy applied anywhere else in medicine there would be no progress whatsoever in medicine."

No legal provision

Dr Kendall said that, under the current law, there was no provision for Stone to be taken into psychiatric care simply to protect the public.

He said Stone was suffering not from mental illness, but from a psychopathic personality disorder.

Under the law such people could only be admitted to hospital for treatment against their wishes "if treatment is likely to allievate or prevent a deterioration in their condition".

"We are not very pleased with him (Jack Straw), but even more important we are appalled by his ignorance," Dr Kendall said.

"He quite clearly does not understand what is and is not possible in the contemporary health service, and more importantly still he clearly does not understand the law."

Dr Kendall said he would write to Jack Straw to ask for a discussion on the issues.

"There may well be a place for some form of preventative detention for men like this, but that is an issue for parliament," he said.