Home Secretary

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The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the United Kingdom Home Office and is responsible for internal affairs in England and Wales, and for immigration and citizenship for the whole United Kingdom (including Scotland and Northern Ireland).

In certain other countries, such as Australia and India, the term Home Secretary refers to the Permanent Secretary, or the senior civil servant, at the Home Ministry of that country.

The remit of these ministries generally includes policing, national security, immigration, the criminal justice system, the prison service, and matters of citizenship.

1 Responsibilities
2 Constitutional affairs
3 Social issues
4 Development of other government departments
5 Home Secretaries since 1782
6 Related pages
7 External links

[edit] Responsibilities

The Home Secretary is currently responsible for:

police
crime
terrorism
citizenship
identity cards and passports
the Prison Service

[edit] Constitutional affairs

The Home Secretary has no responsibility for the Courts of England and Wales. Unlike many other governments issues usually dealt with by a Department of Justice, the British government has three separate departments the Home Office (as specified above), the Attorney General's Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs, headed by the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, for legal, judicial and civil rights issues.

[edit] Social issues

The Home Office has also previously dealt with some social issues, including race equality, community cohesion, and policy on charities and the voluntary sector. social exclusion, equality and race relations. Responsibility for race equality and community cohesion is held since May 5th 2006 by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. From the same date, responsibility for charities and the voluntary sector has been held by the Cabinet Office.

[edit] Development of other government departments

Because the Home Office was initially the primary government department with responsibility for domestic affairs, all subsequent domestic departments have effectively been created by taking responsibilities from the Home Office. Until 2001 this left a variety of miscellaneous tasks that sat apart from the law and order functions of the department, such as British Summer Time or wild birds in Scotland. However, on the appointment of David Blunkett as Home Secretary, these functions - and others such as responsibility for the Fire Brigade - have been reallocated to other departments to give the position a focus solely on law and order.