18-718: The Home Office ( HO ), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department , is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom . It is responsible for immigration , security , and law and order . As such, it is responsible for policing in England and Wales, fire and rescue services in England, Border Force , visas and immigration , and
36-566: A further compensation scheme for those affected, and a wider debate on the Home Office hostile environment policy . Aderonke Apata , a Nigerian LGBT activist , made two asylum claims that were both rejected by the Home Office in 2014 and on 1 April 2015 respectively, due to her previously having been in a relationship with a man and having children with that man. In 2014, Apata said that she would send an explicit video of herself to
54-499: Is shown below. Government departments in this third and final category can generally be split into five types: Northern Department The Northern Department was a department of the government of the Kingdom of England from 1660 to 1707 and later the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1707 until 1782 when its functions were reorganised into the new Home Office and Foreign Office . The Northern Department was, together with
72-1143: 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 five-year science and technology strategy, the Home Office sponsors research in police sciences , including: Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee The Government of
90-701: The Great Offices of State ; it has been held by Yvette Cooper since July 2024. The Home Office is managed from day to day by a civil servant , the Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Home Office . The expenditure, administration, and policy of the Home Office are scrutinised by the Home Affairs Select Committee . The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary , a Cabinet minister, supported by
108-614: The Kingdom of Great Britain , the two departments also split responsibility for Scottish affairs, except during those times when there was an appointed Secretary of State for Scotland . Responsibility for overseas military strategy was also shared between the two departments. It was administered by the Secretary of State for the Northern Department . In 1782, the Northern and Southern Departments were reorganized, with
126-622: The Security Service (MI5) . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs , counterterrorism , and immigration . It was formerly responsible for His Majesty's Prison Service and the National Probation Service , but these have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice . The Cabinet minister responsible for the department is the Home Secretary , a post considered one of
144-640: The Southern Department , responsible for both foreign and domestic affairs. Foreign affairs were split between the two departments on a geographical basis, with the Northern Department taking responsibility for Russia , Sweden , Denmark-Norway , Poland , the Netherlands , and the German Holy Roman Empire . Responsibility for domestic affairs was shared between the two departments. After England united with Scotland to form
162-584: The Home Office had its offices in what is now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Main Building on King Charles Street, off Whitehall . From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was then 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
180-408: The Home Office to prove her sexuality. This resulted in her asylum bid gaining widespread support, with multiple petitions created in response, which gained hundreds of thousands of signatures combined. On 8 August 2017, after a thirteen-year legal battle and after a new appeal from Apata was scheduled for late July, she was granted refugee status in the United Kingdom by the Home Office. Until 1978,
198-565: The Home Office. The initial responsibilities were: Responsibilities were subsequently changed over the years that followed: 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 . On 18 July 2012, the Public and Commercial Services Union announced that thousands of Home Office employees would go on strike over jobs, pay and other issues. The union called off
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#1732765098963216-409: The United Kingdom is divided into departments that each have responsibility, according to the government, for putting government policy into practice. There are currently 24 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments, and 422 agencies and other public bodies, for a total of 465 departments. Ministerial departments are generally the most high-profile government departments and differ from
234-695: The country, notably the headquarters of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon. In 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 . For external shots of its fictional Home Office, the TV series Spooks uses an aerial shot of
252-964: The department's senior civil servant, the permanent secretary . The Home Office comprises eleven directorates that help fulfil the department's responsibilities. As of April 2024, the Home Office works with the following agencies and public bodies: In the financial year 2022-2023, the Home Office had a total budget of £20.3 billion. The Home Office ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold. King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee The Department outlined its aims for this Parliament in its Business Plan, which
270-578: The other two types of government departments in that they include ministers. A list of all ministerial departments is shown below. The Rt Hon Simon Case CVO Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Civil Service Catherine Little CB Permanent Secretary Non-ministerial departments are headed by civil servants and usually have a regulatory or inspection function. A list of all non-ministerial departments
288-556: The strike; it claimed the department had, consequent to the threat of actions, announced 1,100 new border jobs. The first allegations about the targeting of pre-1973 Caribbean migrants started in 2013. In 2018, the allegations were put to the Home Secretary in the House of Commons , and resulted in the resignation of the then Home Secretary. The Windrush scandal resulted in some British citizens being wrongly deported, along with
306-540: Was published in May 2011, and superseded its Structural Reform Plan. The plan said the department will: The Home Office publishes progress against the plan on the 10 Downing Street website. On 27 March 1782 ; 242 years ago ( 1782-03-27 ) , the Home Office was formed by renaming the existing Southern Department , with all existing staff transferring. On the same day, the Northern Department
324-740: 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 (including colonies, previously administered under the Board of Trade ) were moved to the Home Office, and all foreign matters (including the administration of British protectorates ) 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
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