| Home Office | |
|---|---|
| The Home Office logo | |
| Department overview | |
| Formed | 1782 |
| Headquarters | Home Office Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF |
| Annual budget | £8.9 billion (current) and £500 million (capital) in 2011-12 [1] |
| Minister responsible | Theresa May, Secretary of State for the Home Department |
| Website | |
| www.homeoffice.gov.uk | |
| United Kingdom | |
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The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service (MI5). It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism, and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for the Prison Service and Probation Service, but these are now under a newly created Ministry of Justice.
It continues to be known, especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament, by its former title, the Home Department.[2]
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The Home Office is currently undergoing a major reform programme, following well-publicised issues in early 2006. This is the current organisation of the Home Office, but is likely to change. It is also immensely complex as there are many sub-groups within the Home Office, such as the UK Border Agency, who look after inward migration and asylum applications to the United Kingdom. The Home Office is also responsible for the Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Directorate and the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, which manage the UK's response to terrorist incidents through the emergency and security services, and develops legislation relating to terrorism.
On 28 March 2007 it was announced that the Department for Constitutional Affairs would take control of probation, prisons and prevention of re-offending in England and Wales from the Home Office and be renamed the Ministry of Justice.[3] This took effect on 9 May 2007.
The Home Office has the following stated objectives:[4]
The Home Office Ministers are as follows:[5]
| Minister | Rank | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rt Hon Theresa May MP | Secretary of State for the Home Department
(Home Secretary) |
Overall responsibility
(includes security and counter-terrorism) |
|
| The Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP | Minister of State | Policing and criminal justice | |
| Lord Henley[6] | Minister of State | Crime prevention and anti-social behaviour reduction | |
| Damian Green MP | Minister of State | Immigration, asylum and border control | |
| James Brokenshire MP | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State | Crime and security | |
| Lynne Featherstone MP | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State | Criminal information | |
| Key | Conservative | |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat |
Theresa May is also Minister for Women and Equalities and Lynne Featherstone Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Government Equalities Office. Nick Herbert works between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.
On 27 March 1782, the Home Office was formed by renaming the existing Southern Department, with all existing staff transferring. On the same day, the Northern Department was renamed the Foreign Office.
To match the new names, there was a transferring of responsibilities between the two Departments of State. All domestic responsibilities were moved to the Home Office, and all foreign matters became the concern of the Foreign Office.
Most subsequently created domestic departments (excluding, for instance, those dealing with education) have been formed by splitting responsibilities away from the Home Office.
The initial responsibilities were:
Responsibilities were subsequently changed over the years that followed:[7]
The Home Office retains a variety of functions that have not found a home elsewhere, and sit oddly with the main law-and-order focus of the department, such as regulation of British Summer Time.
The department is also responsible for a government-owned company, the Forensic Science Service, reporting to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Crime and Security).
From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was located at 50 Queen Anne's Gate, a Brutalist office block in Westminster designed by Sir Basil Spence, close to St. James's Park tube station. Many functions, however, were devolved to offices in other parts of London and the country, notably the headquarters of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon.
In Spring 2005, the Home Office moved to a new main office designed by Sir Terry Farrell at 2 Marsham Street, Westminster, SW1P 4DF, on the site of the demolished Marsham Towers building of the Department of the Environment.[8] The contract to build the new headquarters was a public-private partnership deal intended to last for around 29 years.
For external shots of its fictional Home Office, the TV series Spooks uses an aerial shot of the Government Offices Great George Street instead, serving as stand-in to match the distinctly less modern appearance of the fictitious accommodation interiors the series uses.
To meet the UK's 5-year science and technology strategy,[9] the Home Office sponsors research in police sciences including:
Most front-line law and order policy areas, such as policing, are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland but the following reserved and excepted matters are handled by Westminster.
Scotland[10]
Reserved matters:
The Scottish Government Justice and Communities Directorates are responsible for policing and community safety policy.
Northern Ireland[11]
Excepted matters:
The following matters were not transferred at the devolution of policing and justice on 12 April 2010 and remain reserved:[12]
The Home Office's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:
The Department of Justice is accountable to the Northern Ireland Executive whereas the Northern Ireland Office is a UK Government department.
Wales
Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific policy areas are transferred to the National Assembly for Wales rather than reserved to Westminster.
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