The criminal records row showed no sign of abating after it emerged four drugs offenders and a people smuggler had been cleared to work with children and vulnerable adults.
Another nine individuals were "probably" given a clean bill of health despite having committed "serious" offences in Europe, according to the Home Office.
But Home Secretary John Reid insisted the public should be "reassured" that none of those passed by the Criminal Records Bureau was a violent or sexual criminal.
The department also dismissed suggestions that police did not know a notorious gangland killer had previous convictions for armed robbery in Germany and Switzerland.
According to the Observer, 43-year-old Dale Miller's offences committed abroad during the 1990s were not entered on the Police National Computer until shortly before he was sentenced to 16 years' jail for manslaughter in Newcastle in 2002.
But a Home Office spokesman said it was "incorrect" that Miller would have been supervised by probation officers if his records had been stored electronically earlier.
"Dale Miller has had a criminal record on the PNC since 1982. He was and is a long-time serious criminal well known to the police throughout that period.
"Dale Miller's foreign record has been on the PNC since 2001 at the latest, concerning offences as far back as 1992 and 1994 in Switzerland and Germany in 1998.
"Dale Miller has no implications for today's figures which are aimed at identifying those people who may have slipped through the net, still be at liberty and working in positions with children and other vulnerable adults."
