John Reid said today he expected more problems to emerge from the Home Office but denied he was feeling "beleaguered".
British Home Secretary Dr John Reid
The British Home Secretary told the Guardianhe had inherited many problems such as those involving foreign national prisoners or overseas convictions when he took over the sprawling department last year.
"If you renovate a house you start by taking the wallpaper off. Only then do you discover more problems. That's what it is like at the Home Office," he wrote.
He said being Home Secretary was his biggest challenge, but "it isn't mission impossible," adding: "Judge me not on the challenges but on my response to them."
A newspaper yesterday revealed that police had lost track of 322 registered sex offenders.
The News of the Worldsaid it had filed freedom of information act requests with all 50 of Britain's police forces asking how many registered sex offenders they had lost because they were no longer at their listed addresses.
Moreover, it emerged today that a dispute was brewing with prison officers over the staffing of new temporary jail due to open this spring in Merseyside to ease severe prisoner overcrowding.