Home Secretary

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Secretary of State for the Home Department

Incumbent:
Jacqui Smith
Took office: 28 June 2007

Style: The Right Honourable
Appointed by: Gordon Brown
as Prime Minister
First : William Petty
Formation: 27 March 1782
United Kingdom

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
the United Kingdom



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The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the United Kingdom Home Office and is one of the Great Offices of State. The Home Secretary is responsible for internal affairs in England and Wales, and for immigration and citizenship for the whole of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). In certain other countries, such as Australia and India, the term Home Secretary refers to the Permanent Secretary, or the senior civil servant, at the Home Ministry of that country.

The remit of the UK ministry includes policing, national security, immigration, and matters of citizenship.

The current Home Secretary is Jacqui Smith.

Contents

[edit] Responsibilities

The Home Secretary is currently responsible for:

[edit] Constitutional & Legal Affairs

The Home Secretary has no responsibility for the Courts of England and Wales. Unlike many other governments issues usually dealt with by a Department of Justice, the British government has three separate departments: The Home Office (as specified above), the Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Justice, headed by the Secretary of State for Justice, for legal, judicial and civil rights issues.

[edit] Development of other government departments

Because the Home Office was initially the primary government department with responsibility for domestic affairs, all subsequent domestic departments have effectively been created by taking responsibilities from the Home Office. Until 2001 this left a variety of miscellaneous tasks that sat apart from the law and order functions of the department, such as British Summer Time or wild birds in Scotland.[1] However, on the appointment of David Blunkett as Home Secretary, these functions - and others such as responsibility for the Fire Brigade - have been reallocated to other departments to give the position a focus solely on law and order.

[edit] Home Secretaries since 1782

† Resigned
# Reshuffled
~ Change of Ministry

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roy Jenkins Churchill (Macmillan, 2001), page 170 ISBN 0-333-78290-9

[edit] Related pages

Related postings in other countries:

[edit] General terms

[edit] European positions

[edit] North and Central American positions

[edit] Asian positions

[edit] Australasian positions

[edit] See also

[edit] External links