Gerry Sutcliffe, the junior Home Office minister responsible for offender management, said probation officers, the parole board and police officers would draw lessons from the "appalling series of errors and misjudgements".

The government's commitment is to public protection.

We want to try and strike the right balance to make sure that if people can be let out on licence in appropriate circumstances they are but what we've got to first of all to do is protect the public.

We want to try and strike the right balance Killer 'too dangerous' How to assess risk?

We've also got to look at training and development making sure that the people who are involved have the skills and resources to be able to deal with difficult cases like this.

Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said resources needed to be targeted at the most dangerous offenders.

If they're let out and there has to be a huge increase in probation resources

We're not a 24 hour surveillance agency. I think the message for the home secretary is that if he wants to prevent serious crimes like this happening again, and I'm sure he does, then either people who are deemed dangerous have to stay inside or the police are given resources to monitor them 24 hours a day.

If they're let out and there has to be a huge increase in probation resources, particularly hostels where we can put them.

Martin Wargent, chief executive of the employers organisation the Probation Boards' Association, said it was an "unusual" and "tragic" case.

"I've been a probation officer for 50 years - 40 years ago none of the things that are in place now were in place.

Many offenders are simply just unpredictable

The multi-agency work is much better than it was, the surveillance of the police is a huge adjunct to what the probation service do.

Many offenders are simply just unpredictable in what they do and you will never have a 100% fail-safe system.

Steve Watts, Hampshire's assistant chief constable, said many of the findings in the report could be applied nationally.

We have a joint statutory responsibility with the probation service, the prison service and other agencies to do our level best to ensure that people in the community are as safe as they possibly can be from these dangerous offenders.

There is a question as to whether Rice should have been released in the community anyway

There can never be any guarantees.

I think the report indicates that there is a question as to whether Rice should have been released in the community anyway.

And whether any arrangements could have done any more than just postpone the inevitable in relation to this very dangerous man attacking members of the community.

Sir Duncan Nichol, Parole Board chairman, said concerns about the possibility of a judicial review over its decisions should be "subordinate to concerns about the serious risk of harm an offender might pose".

The Parole Board deeply regrets the circumstances that led to the death of Naomi Bryant and the fact that she was murdered by a man who had recently been released from prison on life licence following a Parole Board review.

The board is committed to doing everything it can to learn the lessons from such cases that will help to prevent further such tragedies.

We accept the principal finding of the inspectorate that the decision to release Anthony Rice was the result of a cumulative failure across the custodial, release on licence, and post release phases of the whole process, and that he should not have been released on life licence.