Tackling Britain's child abuse problem will be a key priority for the Home Office, the new home secretary, David Blunkett has said.

Following his appointment, Blunkett lost no time in setting out his credentials, saying that naming and shaming paedophiles could be acceptable in some cases.

He said that he would consider ways of giving "controlled access to information about sex offenders".

In an article in the News of the World, Blunkett said the government would also tackle the problem of paedophiles making contact with children over the internet.

"In our election manifesto we pledged new action to prevent paedophiles preying on children through the internet," he said. "We plan to give police powers to confiscate computers and provide measures protecting children with internet access," he wrote.

Blunkett signalled that he would move to tackle repeat offending and set out plans to tackle Britain's drug problems. He said that 100,000 offenders were responsible for over half of all the crime committed in Britain today.

The new home secretary has been given responsibility to develop the government's anti-drugs strategy. "Drugs are the biggest scourge of the modern era," he said. "They are the key erosive element in dysfunctional families and within communities."