সোমবার, ১৫ অক্টোবর, ২০১২

Two senior Conservative cabinet ministers call for Britain to threaten to leave the European Union

The Home Office is a Ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service (MI5). It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism, and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for the Prison Service and Probation Service, but these are now under a newly created Ministry of Justice.

It continues to be known, especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament, as the Home Department.

Organisation

The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary, a Cabinet minister supported by the senior civil servant, the Permanent Secretary.

As of April 2012, the Home Office comprised the following agencies, inspectorates, and public bodies:

Agencies

  • Criminal Records Bureau
  • Identity and Passport Service
  • National Fraud Authority
  • UK Border Agency
  • Inspectorates

  • HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
  • Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency
  • Public Bodies

  • Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
  • Animal Procedures Committee
  • Equality and Human Rights Commission
  • Independent Police Complaints Commission
  • Independent Safeguarding Authority
  • Investigatory Powers Tribunal
  • Migration Advisory Committee
  • National Policing Improvement Agency
  • Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
  • Office of the Surveillance Commissioners
  • Police Advisory Board
  • Police Negotiating Board
  • Security Industry Authority
  • Serious Organised Crime Agency
  • Technical Advisory Board
  • Ministers

    The Home Office Ministers are as follows:

    {| class=wikitable ! colspan=2 | Minister ! Rank ! Portfolio |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | The Rt Hon Theresa May MP | Secretary of State for the Home Department (Home Secretary) | Overall responsibility for the work of the department. Security, counter-terrorism, legislative programmes and expenditure issues |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Damian Green MP | Minister of State (jointly with the Ministry of Justice) | Crime and justice policy. Overall responsibility for all crime issues in the Home Office, police reform and police accountability, police funding, youth crime, anti-social behaviour, serious organised crime and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, creation of a border police force jointly with the immigration minister, departmental big society champion |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Mark Harper MP | Minister of State | Immigration, asylum and border control. Responsible for policy on immigration and asylum, implementation of the immigration cap, policy on passports and oversight of the Identity and Passport Service and the General Register Office, creation of a border police force, border control and enforcement including oversight of the UK Border Agency |- | width=1 style="background:#FFD700" | | Jeremy Browne MP | Minister of State | Crime prevention and anti-social behaviour reduction. Crime reduction policy, drugs and alcohol policy, use of DNA and reform of DNA database, Licensing Act and powers of police and local authorities, public order, use of powers of surveillance by local authorities, violent crime, CCTV, acquisitive and business crime, oversight of the Forensic Science Service |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | James Brokenshire MP | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State | Crime and security. Counter-terrorism, Olympic security, exclusion orders, departmental science, including counter-terrorism science and technology, extradition, mutual legal assistance |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Lord Henley | Parliamentary Under Secrteray of State | Criminal information including vetting and barring, the Security Industry Authority, the Criminal Records Bureau, asset recovery, scientific procedures on live animals, departmental statistics and research, departmental Freedom of information lead |- |}

    {| class=wikitable ! rowspan=2 | Key | style="background:#0087DC" | | Conservative |- | style="background:#FFD700" | | Liberal Democrat |}

    Damian Green works between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

    Priorities

    The Department outlined its aims for this Parliament in its Business Plan, which was published in May 2011 and superseded its Structural Reform Plan. The plan said the department will:

    ::1. Empower the public to hold the police to account for their role in cutting crime :::* Introduce directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners and make police actions to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour more transparent ::2. Free up the police to fight crime more effectively and efficiently :::* Cut police bureaucracy, end unnecessary central interference and overhaul police powers in order to cut crime, reduce costs and improve police value for money. Simplify national institutional structures and establish a National Crime Agency to strengthen the fight against organised crime (and replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency) ::3. Create a more integrated criminal justice system :::*Help the police and other public services work together across the criminal justice system ::4. Secure our borders and reduce immigration :::*Deliver an improved migration system that commands public confidence and serves our economic interests. Limit non-EU economic migrants, and introduce new measures to reduce inflow and minimise abuse of all migration routes, for example the student route. Process asylum applications more quickly, and end the detention of children for immigration purposes ::5. Protect people's freedoms and civil liberties :::*Reverse state interference to ensure there is not disproportionate intrusion into people?s lives ::6. Protect our citizens from terrorism :::*Keep people safe through the Government?s approach to counter-terrorism ::7. Build a fairer and more equal society (through the Government Equalities Office) :::*Help create a fair and flexible labour market. Change culture and attitudes. Empower individuals and communities. Improve equality structures, frontline services and support; and help Government Departments and others to consider equality as a matter of course

    The Home Office publishes progress against the plan on the 10 Downing Street website.

    History

    On 27 March 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:

  • 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 in England and Wales
  • 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 and the Scottish Office)
  • 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)
  • 1992 removed: broadcasting and sport (to the new Department of National Heritage - later the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
  • 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 as regulation of British Summer Time.

    Permanent Under Secretaries of State of the Home Office

  • Dame Helen Ghosh 2011-
  • Sir David Normington 2006?2010
  • 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 Armstrong 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 Godfrey Lushington 1885-1895
  • Anonymous attack

    On April 7, 2012, hacktivist group Anonymous temporarily took down the UK Home Office website. The group took responsibility for the attack, the attack was part of ongoing Anonymous activity in protest against the deportation of hackers as part of Operation TrialAtHome. One Anonymous source claimed in their tweet it was also launched in retaliation for "draconian surveillance proposals".

    Union Action

    On the 18th of 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. This strike was likely to affect the 2012 Olympic Games as the strike action was due to take place on the day before the opening ceremony, on the 26th of July (the Opening ceremony will be on the 27th). The strike was due to last for 24 hours and after this, the PCSU would continue with other methods of action including "working to rule" and a ban on overtime. This would have disrupted one of the busiest days for Heathrow Airport when many athletes and overseas visitors were to arrive for the games. However, the PCSU called off the strike before it was planned as it was seen as not going to be effective and would have been extremely unpopular with the public.

    Location

    From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was 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 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, SW1P 4DF, 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.

    For external shots of its fictional Home Office, the TV series Spooks uses an aerial shot of 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.

    Research

    To meet the UK's 5-year science and technology strategy, the Home Office sponsors research in police sciences including:
  • Biometrics ? including face and voice recognition
  • Cell type analysis ? to determine the origin of cells (e.g. hair, skin)
  • Chemistry ? new techniques to recover latent fingerprints
  • DNA ? identifying offender characteristics from DNA
  • Improved Profiling ? of illicit drugs to help identify their source
  • Raman Spectroscopy ? to provide more sensitive drugs and explosives detectors (e.g. roadside drug detection)
  • Terahertz imaging methods and technologies ? e.g. image analysis and new cameras, to detect crime, enhance images and support anti-terrorism
  • Devolution

    Most front-line law and order policy areas, such as policing and criminal justice, are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland but the following reserved and excepted matters are handled by Westminster.

    Scotland

    Reserved matters:

  • The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
  • Extradition legislation, but Scottish Ministers (through the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service) have executive responsibility for all aspects of mutual legal assistance
  • Most aspects of Firearms legislation, but Scottish Ministers have some executive responsibilities for the licensing of firearms and will gain more when the Scotland Bill 2011 receives royal assent
  • Immigration and nationality
  • Scientific procedures on live animals
  • The Scottish Government Justice and Communities Directorates are responsible for devolved justice and home affairs policy.

    Northern Ireland

    Excepted matters:

  • Extradition (as an international relations matter)
  • Immigration and nationality
  • The following matters were not transferred at the devolution of policing and justice on 12 April 2010 and remain reserved:

  • Drug classification
  • Parades
  • Security of explosives
  • Serious Organised Crime Agency
  • The Home Office's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:

  • Department of Justice (policing, public order and community safety)
  • Northern Ireland Office (national security in Northern Ireland)

    The Department of Justice is accountable to the Northern Ireland Executive whereas the Northern Ireland Office is a UK Government department.

    Wales

    Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific policy areas are transferred to the National Assembly for Wales rather than reserved to Westminster.

    See also

  • Home Office Large Major Enquiry System
  • John Gieve
  • Ministry of Home Security
  • United Kingdom budget
  • UK Immigration Service
  • Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
  • References

    External links

  • Home Office?main website
  • Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies?gives a history of responsibilities of the Home Office, including which functions were merged into or transferred away from the Home Office
  • Home Office Watch - list of Home Office mistakes and errors
  • Category:Ministerial departments of the United Kingdom Government Category:English law United Kingdom Category:Law enforcement in England and Wales United Kingdom Category:Ministries established in 1782 Category:1782 establishments in Great Britain

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    Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/10/15/Two_senior_Conservative_cabinet_ministers_call_for_Britain_t/

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