Ministry of the Interior and Administration

Ministry of the Interior and Administration of The Republic of Poland

Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji
Ministerial logotype
The seat of the ministry on Stefan Batory Street, Warsaw
Agency overview
Headquarters	ul. Stefana Batorego 5, Warsaw 52°12′40″N 21°01′00″E
Agency executive	Marcin Kierwiński, Minister of the Interior and Administration
Parent agency	Council of Ministers
Website	gov.pl/mswia

Ministry of the Interior and Administration (Template:Lang-pl) is an administration structure controlling main administration and security branches of the Polish government. After Parliamentary Election on 9 October 2011 was transformed for two ministries: Ministry of Interior (Minister: Jacek Cichocki) and Ministry of Administration and Digitization (Minister: Michał Boni). It was recreated in late 2015.

History and function

The ministry was founded in 1918 as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych). During a reform of the Polish government in 1996 the administration branch was merged into the Ministry and it was renamed to its current name (on 24 December).

That was one of the most important governmental cabinet positions in Poland, The ministry was responsible for the following:

• The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes
  • including the major law-enforcement forces (see law enforcement in Poland)
    • the Polish National Police (Policja)
    • the Polish Border Guard (Straż Graniczna)
  • Civil defence
    • the State Fire Brigade (Straż Pożarna)
    • Search and rescue and the oversight of ambulance services
• the granting of identity documents (Polish passports, identity cards) and driving licenses through the network of voivodeships
• relations between the central government and local governments (except in the case of regional development, which is undertaken by the Ministry of Regional Development
• logistics and organization of political elections, at the national and voivodeship levels (but the results of the elections are overseen by the Supreme Court of Poland)
• regulation of immigration and preventing illegal immigration
• integration and registration of legal immigrants

While the ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries; criminal enquiries are conducted under the supervision of the judiciary.

The Ministry's headquarters was located on the Stefan Batory Street, south of Warsaw's city centre and the governmental district which surrounds the Belweder. The Ministry could be referred to by its initials 'MSWiA'.

The last Minister of the Interior and Administration before it was split in 2011 was Jerzy Miller.

List of ministers

Ministers of Internal Affairs of the Second Republic of Poland (1918 - 1939)

	Portrait	Name	party	Term Of Office		Prime Minister (Cabinet)
		Stanisław Thugutt	Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie"	17 November 1918	16 January 1919	Jędrzej Moraczewski (Moraczewski)
		Stanisław Wojciechowski	Independent	16 January 1919	9 June 1920	Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Paderewski) Leopold Skulski (Skulski)
		Józef Kuczyński (acting)	Independent	23 June 1920	24 July 1920	Władysław Grabski (Grabski I)
		Leopold Skulski	National People's Union	24 July 1920	28 June 1921	Wincenty Witos (Witos I)
		Władysław Raczkiewicz	Independent	28 June 1921	13 September 1921	Wincenty Witos (Witos I)
		Stanisław Downarowicz	Independent	19 September 1921	5 March 1922	Antoni Ponikowski (Ponikowski I)
		Antoni Kamieński	Independent	10 March 1922	11 December 1922	Antoni Ponikowski (Ponikowski II) Artur Śliwiński (Śliwiński) Julian Nowak (Nowak)
		Ludwik Darowski (acting)	Independent	11 December 1922	14 December 1922	Julian Nowak ((Nowak)
		Władysław Sikorski	Independent	16 December 1922	26 May 1923	Władysław Sikorski (Sikorski I)
		Władysław Kiernik	Polish People's Party "Piast"	28 May 1923	14 December 1923	Wincenty Witos (Witos II)
		Władysław Sołtan	Independent	19 December 1923	21 March 1924	Władysław Grabski (Grabski II)
		Zygmunt Hübner	Independent	21 March 1924	17 November 1924	Władysław Grabski (Grabski II)
		Cyryl Ratajski	Independent	17 November 1924	14 June 1925	Władysław Grabski (Grabski II)
		Władysław Raczkiewicz	Independent	14 June 1925	5 May 1926	Władysław Grabski (Grabski II) Aleksander Skrzyński (Skrzyński)
		Stefan Smólski	Polish Christian Democratic Party	10 May 1926	15 May 1926	Wincenty Witos (Witos III)
		Kazimierz Młodzianowski	Independent	15 May 1926	30 September 1926	Kazimierz Bartel (Bartel I) (Bartel II) (Bartel III)
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski	Independent	2 October 1926	7 December 1929	Józef Piłsudski (Piłsudski I) Kazimierz Bartel (Bartel IV) Kazimierz Świtalski (Świtalski)
		Henryk Józewski	Independent	9 December 1929	3 June 1930	Kazimierz Bartel (Bartel V) Walery Sławek (Sławek I)
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski	Independent	3 June 1930	22 June 1931	Walery Sławek (Sławek I) Józef Piłsudski (Piłsudski II) Walery Sławek (Sławek II) Aleksander Prystor (Prystor)
		Bronisław Pieracki	Independent	23 June 1931	15 June 1934	Aleksander Prystor (Prystor) Janusz Jędrzejewicz (Jędrzejewicz) Leon Kozłowski (Kozłowski)
		Leon Kozłowski	Independent	16 June 1934	28 June 1934	Leon Kozłowski (Kozłowski)
		Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski	Independent	28 June 1934	12 October 1935	Walery Sławek (Sławek III)
		Władysław Raczkiewicz	Independent	13 October 1935	15 May 1936	Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski (Zyndram-Kościałkowski)
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski	Independent	16 May 1936	30 September 1939	Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski (Składkowski)
Ministers of Public Security (1944 - 1954)
		Stanisław Radkiewicz	Polish Workers' Party	31 December 1944	7 December 1954	Polish Committee of National Liberation, Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, Provisional Government of National Unity, Józef Cyrankiewicz (Cyrankiewicz I) Bolesław Bierut (Bierut) Józef Cyrankiewicz (Cyrankiewicz II)
Ministers of Internal Affairs of People's Republic of Poland (1954 - 1990)
		Władysław Wicha	Polish United Workers' Party	7 December 1954	12 December 1964	Józef Cyrankiewicz (Cyrankiewicz II) (Cyrankiewicz III)
		Mieczysław Moczar	Polish United Workers' Party	12 December 1964	15 July 1968	Józef Cyrankiewicz (Cyrankiewicz III) (Cyrankiewicz IV)
		Kazimierz Świtała	Polish United Workers' Party	15 July 1968	13 February 1971	Józef Cyrankiewicz (Cyrankiewicz IV) , (Cyrankiewicz V) Piotr Jaroszewicz (Jaroszewicz I)
		Franciszek Szlachcic	Polish United Workers' Party	13 February 1971	22 December 1971	Józef Cyrankiewicz(Cyrankiewicz V) Piotr Jaroszewicz (Jaroszewicz I)
		Wiesław Ociepka	Polish United Workers' Party	22 December 1971	28 February 1973	Piotr Jaroszewicz (Jaroszewicz I) , (Jaroszewicz II)
		Stanisław Kowalczyk	Polish United Workers' Party	22 March 1973	8 October 1980	Piotr Jaroszewicz (Jaroszewicz II)Edward Babiuch (Babiuch) Józef Pińkowski (Pińkowski)
		Mirosław Milewski	Polish United Workers' Party	8 October 1980	31 July 1981	Józef Pińkowski (Pińkowski) , Wojciech Jaruzelski (Jaruzelski)
		Czesław Kiszczak	Polish United Workers' Party	31 JUly 1981	6 July 1990	Wojciech Jaruzelski (Jaruzelski) , Zbigniew Messner (Messner) , Czesław Kiszczak (Kiszczak), Tadeusz Mazowiecki ( Mazowiecki)
Ministers of Internal Affairs of Third Polish Republic
		Krzysztof Kozłowski	Independent	6 July 1990	12 January 1991	Tadeusz Mazowiecki ( Mazowiecki)
		Henryk Majewski	Independent	12 January 1991	23 December 1991	Jan Krzysztof Bielecki(Bielecki)
		Antoni Macierewicz	Christian National Union	23 December 1991	20 June 1992	Jan Olszewski (Olszewski) Waldemar Pawlak (Pawlak I)
		Andrzej Milczanowski	Independent	11 July 1992	22 December 1995	Hanna Suchocka (Cabinet of Hanna Suchocka) Waldemar Pawlak (Pawlak II) Józef Oleksy (Oleksy)
		Jerzy Konieczny	Independent	29 December 1995	7 February 1996	Józef Oleksy (Oleksy)
		Zbigniew Siemiątkowski	Democratic Left Alliance	7 February 1996	31 December 1996	Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz(Cimoszewicz)
	Replaced by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration (1997)
	Ministers of Internal Affairs and Administration of Third Polish Republic
		Leszek Miller	Democratic Left Alliance	1 January 1997	31 October 1997	Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz(Cimoszewicz)
		Janusz Tomaszewski	Solidarity Electoral Action	31 October 1997	3 September 1999	Jerzy Buzek (Buzek)

Office reestablished (2011)

• Jacek Cichocki 18 November 2011 – 25 February 2013
• Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz 25 February 2013 – 22 September 2014
• Teresa Piotrowska (PO) 22 September 2014 – 16 November 2015

Replaced by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration (2015)

• Marek Biernacki (AWS) 7 October 1999 – 19 October 2001
• Krzysztof Janik (SLD) 19 October 2001 – 21 January 2004
• Józef Oleksy (SLD) 21 January 2004 – 21 April 2004
• Jerzy Szmajdziński (SLD) 21 April 2004 – 2 May 2004
• Ryszard Kalisz (SLD) 2 May 2004 – 31 October 2005
• Ludwik Dorn (PiS) 31 October 2005 – 7 February 2007
• Janusz Kaczmarek (independent) 8 February 2007 – 8 August 2007
• Władysław Stasiak (independent) 8 August 2007 – 16 November 2007
• Grzegorz Schetyna (PO) 16 November 2007 – 13 October 2009
• Jerzy Miller (PO) 14 October 2009 – 17 November 2011

Replaced by the Minister of Internal Affairs (2011)

Office reestablished (2015)

• Mariusz Błaszczak (PIS) 16 November 2015 – 9 January 2018
• Joachim Brudziński (PIS) 9 January 2018 – 4 June 2019
• Elżbieta Witek (PIS) 4 June 2019 – 9 August 2019
• Mariusz Kamiński (PIS) since 14 August 2019