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[[Image:Marsham St Home Office.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Home Office building at [[2 Marsham Street]], [[London]]]]
[[Image:Marsham St Home Office.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Home Office building at [[2 Marsham Street]], [[London]]]]


The '''Home Office''' is a [[United Kingdom government department]], responsible for [[Interior minister|internal affairs]], such as security, crime, drugs, counter-terrorism and ID cards. It continues to be known, especially in official papers, by its former title, the '''Home Department'''.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}
The '''Home Office''' is the [[United Kingdom government department]] responsible for security and order. As such it is responsible for the [[police]], [[fire service]]s and [[MI5]]. Furthermore it is responsible for government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for the [[prison service]] and [[probation serivce]], but these are now under a newly created [[Ministry of Justice]].

The Home Office is one of the most important of the [[United Kingdom government department]]s.

It continues to be known, especially in official papers, by its former title, the Home Department.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}


== Organisation ==
== Organisation ==

Revision as of 16:00, 13 April 2008

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 the United Kingdom government department responsible for security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, fire services and MI5. Furthermore it is responsible for government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for the prison service and probation serivce, but these are now under a newly created Ministry of Justice.

The Home Office is one of the most important of the United Kingdom government departments.

It continues to be known, especially in official papers, by its former title, the Home Department.[citation needed]

Organisation

Lunar House in Croydon, which holds the headquarters of the Home Office Border and Immigration Agency

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.[1] This took effect on 9th May 2007.

Objectives of the Home Office

The Home Office has the following stated objectives[2]:

  • 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.

Ministers

(as of 29 June 2007)[3]

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.

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[4]:


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.

Permanent Under Secretaries of State of the Home Office

Departmental agencies

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.[5] The contract to build the new headquarters was a public-private partnership deal intended to last for around 29 years.

References

  1. ^ Home Office Split BBC News Online
  2. ^ Home Office aims
  3. ^ Home Office Ministers
  4. ^ Changes to Home Office responsibilities
  5. ^ New Home Office building

See also

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