Former Birmingham City Council chief executive Lin Homer has been accused of ‘catastrophic leadership failure' during her time at the UK Border Agency.

Ms Homer's current position, as chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs, is now under scrutiny, following the findings of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

In a report on the running of the Border Agency, the committee is expected to find that she misled MPs and they have  ‘little confidence' in her ability to run a Government department.

It is also expected to call for the end to the ‘revolving door' culture of Whitehall, where senior civil servants are appointed to other government jobs, even when they have failed.

During her four years as head of the Border Agency, it is claimed that the organisation ran up a backlog of asylum cases. It is estimated that the current backlog stands at 312,726 cases – the equivalent of the population of Iceland, and it will take 24 years to clear the backlog at the current rate.

The current chief executive of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) Rob Whiteman, has also come from a local government background, as chief executive of Barking and Dagenham LBC and more recently head of the Improvement and Development Agency before it was merged with the Local Government Association.

Ms Homer has previously apologised to the committed for having ‘inadvertently misled' MPs over the size of the backlog and on whether security checks had been carried out.

The committee has called for MPs to be given a stronger role in appointing top civil servants in the future.

UPDATED 26 March:  Home secretary Theresa May today announced in Parliament the Border Agency is to be abolished in its present form as an arm's length agency, with its operational role enforcing the visa system and immigration law to be split and returned within the ambit of the Home Office.