HOME Secretary David Blunkett has rejected claims that police investigations into child abuse in Lancashire had ruined lives and had put innocent people in the dock.

He was replying to a report from a powerful all party group of MPs which said the police tactic of "trawling" the records for victims of physical and sexual abuse in local authority children's homes was likely to lead to frequent miscarriages of justice.

The House of Commons Home Affairs committee looked at dozens of police investigations, including the Operation Nevada inquiry conducted by Lancashire Police and a similar investigation, Operation Care, led by Merseyside Police.

Former Burnley School teacher Nicholas Hoyle was jailed for two years and eight months for abusing young boys just before the MPs report came out last October as result of Operation Nevada.

The MPs concluded that people had been wrongly convicted across Britain due to the "over-enthusiastic" pursuit of allegations of child abuse from 20 or 30 years ago.

However Mr Blunkett and the Home Office has rejected the allegation.

In his official response to the MPs' inquiry, Mr Blunkett said: "The government respects the views of the committee, but does not share it's belief in the existence of large numbers of miscarriages of justice."

It admits that this is an "immensely difficult" area of prosecution but said the MPs appeared to believe that significant numbers of complainants made and conspired to make fabricated complaints and colluded with police and personal injury solicitors to make the claims to make money.

The MPs are also alleged to have come to the conclusion that significant numbers of complainants were either serving prisoners or ex-prisoners and were "therefore more likely to be dishonest when making claims of abuse."

Mr Blunkett said: "The government sees no evidence to support these assumptions and note that the committee have themselves recorded their own reservations in this respect. We are concerned that they have nonetheless relied upon them significantly, without the weight of significant and consistent substantiation to back them up."

In addition to those accused and acquitted the report said that "a large number of people who were not charged may have had their lives ruined or seriously damaged by unfounded allegations."

Although both the Home Office and Lancashire Social Services Directorate say that many of the recommendations of the report were already good practice or being introduced into law, Mr Blunkett rejects calls to limit "trawling" or "dip sampling" among residents of homes where abuse has been alleged.

A Lancashire Constabulary spokesman said: "We ourselves recognise that these are difficult and sensitive investigations for the police.

"Throughout the course of Operation Nevada - which has been running for nearly three years - we, along with the other

agencies involved, have taken a careful approach to our enquiries.

"We anticipate the investigation coming to a conclusion in the near future."