Home Office

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For a business office in one's home, see Small office/home office.

The Home Office building at 2 Marsham Street, London

The Home Office is a United Kingdom government department, responsible for internal affairs, such as law and order throughout England and Wales. It continues to be known, especially in official papers, as in former times as the Home Department. The Permanent Secretary for the Home Department is Sir David Normington.

1 Organisation
- 1.1 Objectives of the Home Office
- 1.2 Ministers
2 History
- 2.1 Permanent Under Secretaries of State of the Home Office
- 2.2 Departmental agencies
3 Location
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Organisation

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 NOMS - the National Offender Management Service, who look after HM Prison Service and the Probation Service, and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), 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 (CTID), which manages 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 will take control of probation, prisons and prevention of re-offending from the Home Office and be renamed the Ministry of Justice. [1]

[edit] Objectives of the Home Office

The Home Office has the following stated objectives:

To cut crime, especially violent and drug-related crime
To ensure people feel safer in their homes and daily lives, particularly through more visible, responsive and accountable policing
To protect the UK from terrorist attack
To rebalance the criminal justice system in favour of the law-abiding majority and victims
To manage offenders in order to protect the public and reduce re-offending
To secure the borders of the United Kingdom, prevent abuse of immigration laws and manage migration to the benefit of the UK.

[edit] Ministers

(as of 14 August 2006)

Secretary of State for the Home Department (aka the "Home Secretary"): The Rt Hon.Dr John Reid MP
- Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety): Tony McNulty MP
  - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety): Vernon Coaker MP
- Minister of State (Criminal Justice and Offender Management): The Rt Hon. The Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
  - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Criminal Justice and Offender Management): Gerry Sutcliffe MP
- Minister of State (Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration): The Rt Hon. Liam Byrne MP
  - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration): Joan Ryan MP

[edit] History

On March 27, 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.

All subsequent domestic departments have been formed by splitting responsibilities away from the Home Office.

The initial responsibilities were:

answering petitions and addresses sent to the King
advising the King on
- royal grants
- warrants and commissions
- the exercise of Royal Prerogative
issuing instructions on behalf of the King to officers of the Crown, Lords Lieutenant and magistrates, mainly concerning law and order
operation of the secret service within the UK
protecting the public
safeguarding the rights and liberties of individuals

Responsibilities were subsequently changed over the years that followed:

1793 added: regulation of aliens
1794 removed: control of military forces (to Secretary of State for War)
1801 removed: colonial business (to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies)
1804 removed: Barbary State consuls (to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies)
1823 added: prisons
1829 added: police services
1836 added: registration of births, deaths and marriages
1844 added: naturalisation
1845 added: registration of Friendly Societies
1855 removed: yeomanries and militias (to War Office)
1858 added: local boards of health
1871 removed: local boards of health (to Local Government Board)
1871 removed: registration of births, deaths and marriages (to Local Government Board)
1872 removed: highways and turnpikes (to Local Government Board)
1875 added: control of explosives
1875 removed: registration of Friendly Societies (to Treasury)
1885 removed: Scotland (to Secretary for Scotland)
1886 removed: fishing (to Board of Trade)
1889 removed: Land Commissioners (to Board of Agriculture)
1900 removed: matters relating to burial grounds (to Local Government Board)
1905 removed: public housing (to Local Government Board)
1914 added: dangerous drugs
1919 removed: aircraft and air traffic (to Air Ministry)
1919 removed: use of human bodies in medical training (to Ministry of Health)
1919 removed: infant and child care (to Ministry of Health)
1919 removed: lunacy and mental health (to Ministry of Health)
1919 removed: health and safety (to Ministry of Health)
1920 added: firearms
1920 removed: Representation of Britain abroad in labour matters (to Ministry of Labour)
1920 removed: mining (to Mines Department)
1921 added: elections (from the Ministry of Health)
1922 removed: relations with Irish Free State (to Colonial Office)
1923 removed: Order of the British Empire (to Treasury)
1925 removed: registration of trade unions (to Ministry of Labour)
1931 removed: county councils (to Ministry of Health)
1933 added: poisons
1934 removed: metropolitan boroughs (to Ministry of Health)
1937 removed: road accident returns (to Ministry of Transport)
1938 added: fire services
1938 removed: Imperial Service Order and medal (to Treasury)
1940 removed: factory inspections (to Ministry of Labour)
1945 removed: workmen's compensation scheme (to Ministry of National Insurance)
1947 added: infant and child care (from Ministry of Health)
1947 removed: regulation of advertisements (to Ministry of Town and Country Planning)
1947 removed: burial fees (to Ministry of Health)
1947 removed: registration of Building Societies (to Treasury)
1948 removed: Broadmoor hospital (to Lunacy Board of Control)
1950 removed: structural precautions for civil defence (to Ministry of Works)
1950 removed: minor judicial appointments (to Lord Chancellor)
1953 removed: slaughterhouses (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government)
1954 removed: markets (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government)
1956 removed: railway accidents (to Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation)
1969 removed: reservoirs (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
1971 removed: child care in England (to Department of Health and Social Security)
1971 removed: child care in Wales (to Welsh Office)
1972 removed: Northern Ireland (to Northern Ireland Office)
1973 removed: adoption (to Department of Health and Social Security)
2007 removed: Criminal Justice, Prisons & Probation and legal affairs (to new Ministry of Justice)
2007 added: Counter Terrorism strategy (from the Cabinet Office)

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 are regulation of British Summer Time.

[edit] Permanent Under Secretaries of State of the Home Office

Sir David Normington 2006–
Sir John Gieve 2002–2006
Sir David Omand 1997–2002
Sir Richard Wilson 1994–1997
Sir Clive Whitmore 1988–1994
Sir Brian Cubbon 1979–1988
Sir Robert Armstong 1977–1979
Sir Arthur Peterson 1972–1977
Sir Philip Allen 1966–1972
Sir Charles Cunningham 1957–1966
Sir Frank Newsam 1948–1957
Sir Alexander Maxwell 1938–1948
Sir Russell Scott 1932–1938
Sir John Anderson 1922–1932
Sir Edward Troup 1908–1922
Sir Mackenzie Dalzell Chalmers 1903–1908
Sir Kenelm Digby 1895–1903
Sir David Lefmenn 1905–1943

[edit] Departmental agencies

Assets Recovery Agency headed by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Crime, Security and Communities)
Criminal Records Bureau headed by the Minister of State (Criminal Justice and Offender Management)
Forensic Science Service headed by the Minister of State (Crime, Security and Communities)
HM Prison Service headed by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Criminal Justice and Offender Management)
Identity and Passport Service headed by the Minister of State (Immigration and Citizenship)

[edit] Location

The former Home Office building at 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London

From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was located in a Brutalist block in Queen Anne's Gate 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, on the site of the demolished Marsham Towers building of the Department of the Environment. The contract to build the new headquarters was a public-private partnership deal intended to last for around 29 years.