Whitehall 'was warned' of crisis

Ms Owers says she "made clear" the deportation problem to Mr Clarke

The chief inspector of prisons says she warned the Home Office about the foreign prisoners deportation "shambles" three years ago.

Anne Owers said she could "hardly have made it more clear" that there were "enormous administrative failings".

But the problem was not a priority for then Home Secretary David Blunkett, she told the New Statesman.

Successor Charles Clarke was sacked when it emerged that freed foreigners were not considered for deportation.

Ms Owers said she had told the Home Office of the problem in 2003.

I could hardly have made more clear the absence of a strategy for managing foreign prisoners Anne Owers

Mr Clarke claimed he became aware of the problem last year.

When asked if Mr Clarke had been aware of her concerns she said: "I could hardly have made more clear the absence of a strategy for managing foreign prisoners.

"I could also hardly have made it more clear, when I was looking at the immigration side, that there were enormous administrative failings."

She also said that, if prison staff wrote reports by computer, "which we do not, you could push any button and find a reference to the lack of a foreign nationals strategy".

'Dilatory attitude'

In 2003, Ms Owers' annual report talked of an "institutional blind spot" for foreign nationals within the prison service.

It also spoke of a "dilatory attitude" from the Immigration Service, "which unless pressed, was not monitoring those liable to deportation and making arrangements for this to take place as soon as sentence had expired".

Ms Owers said she was also worried about the Home Office's recent reaction to "the deportations issue".

"My concern is that we don't create another shambles," she told the New Statesman.

Last week it emerged that foreign inmates at Ford open prison in Sussex were being returned to closed prisons after 11 absconded last month.

"Foreign nationals are being pulled out of open prisons and into closed ones. At least one British prisoner has been transferred in error," Ms Owers said.

"We don't need a panic reaction. We need a system that allows us to manage foreign prisoners effectively," she went on.