Department details

The origins of the Home Office can be traced to 1782 when the Earl of Shelburne was appointed Secretary of State with responsibility for domestic and colonial affairs. Prior to that time the administration of the Crown's domestic business had been shared indiscriminately between two principal Secretaries of State, both of whom were primarily concerned with foreign affairs. One Secretary of State now took charge of foreign affairs, while the other (the Home Secretary) took over functions connected with the internal government of the United Kingdom. This became his exclusive concern over the next two decades, as his remaining duties in regard to military forces, colonial affairs and relations with the Barbary States were transferred to the newly created post of Secretary of State for War (later Secretary of State for War and the Colonies).1

The Home Secretary is the Minister responsible for the Home Office, which has progressively expanded from the core of two under-secretaries, a chief clerk and ten civil servants inherited by Lord Shelburne. The Home Secretary's territorial remit has narrowed over time. Responsibility for Scottish affairs was transferred to a Secretary of State for Scotland in 1885, while the Home Secretary's ultimate responsibility for the affairs of Ireland ceased in 1922; for Northern Ireland in 1972; and for the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands in 2001. The Home Secretary was designated as Minister for Welsh Affairs in 1951, but this function passed to the Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1957.2

The Home Secretary has traditionally been responsible for those aspects of the domestic government of the UK which have not been assigned to other departments, and also acts as the link between the monarch and the public, exercising certain powers on the monarch's behalf, such as the Royal Pardon. His authority is based on legislation and on the royal prerogative. This broad remit means that the Home Office has acquired a variety of major and minor functions over time, while some of its functions have been transferred to other departments. A number of functions were removed from the Home Office following the 2001 general election, to allow it to focus on tackling crime, reform of the Criminal Justice System and asylum issues: these changes are outlined in further detail below.3

The following are among the more important areas of responsibility which have been exercised by the Home Office:

(1) Law and order. This includes the administration of justice, criminal law, the police, the prison service and the probation service. The Home Secretary has had a general responsibility for public order since 1782; took over ministerial responsibility for the police and prison services, as these were created, in the course of the 19th century; and became responsible for the probation service after 1907.4 From 1829 until 2000 the Home Secretary also acted as a police authority for the Metropolitan Police Service, which was directly responsible to him. In 2000 a separate Metropolitan Police Authority was established under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, although the Home Secretary continued to be responsible for appointing the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (see the Administrative History of the Metropolitan Police for further details). The Home Secretary's functions in regard to prisons were exercised through a Prison Commission from 1877 until 1963, when the Commission became the Home Office's Prison Department; the Prison Service later became an Executive Agency of the Home Office.5 An independent Prisons Inspectorate, headed by a Chief Inspector reporting directly to the Home Secretary, was established in 1980. The inspection of provincial police forces was delegated to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary following the County and Borough Police Act 1856.6 The Home Secretary has a general duty to promote legislation relating to the form and content of the criminal law, including sentencing policy; exercises the royal prerogative of mercy; and may refer cases relating to convicted persons for judicial review. Requests for extradition to and from the United Kingdom also fall within the Home Office's remit.7 The Home Office's responsibility for administering the hospital for the criminally insane at Broadmoor was transferred to a board of control in 1948, while certain responsibilities in regard to minor judicial appointments were transferred to the Lord Chancellor in 1950.8

(2) Immigration and nationality. Responsibility for the regulation of alien nationals has rested with the Home Office since 1793, and for naturalisation since 1844. Responsibility for aliens was delegated to an Aliens Office from 1793 until 1836. The immigration functions of the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate include control of entry by immigration officers at ports and airports, deportation, refugees and asylum seekers, and processing of applications for British citizenship. Passport services for UK nationals in Britain are provided by the UK Passport Agency, an Executive Agency of the Home Office. Following the 2001 general election, responsibility for work permits was transferred to the Home Office from the former Department for Education and Employment.9

(3) Fire and civil defence. Following the Fire Brigades Act 1938, the Home Office became responsible for fire services, and for promoting fire safety and prevention, including research. The inspection of fire services was delegated to Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate. Civil defence and emergency planning also became functions of the Home Office, following the establishment of an Air Raid Precautions Department in 1935. In 2001 the Home Office's responsibilities for the fire service, fire safety and the Fire Service Inspectorate were transferred to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions; while contingency and emergency planning functions were transferred to the Cabinet Office.10

(4) Children. The Home Office formerly had a general responsibility for child protection and welfare, including supervision of approved schools, remand homes, juvenile delinquency, and children taken into care by local authorities and voluntary bodies. These duties were transferred in 1971 to the Department of Health and Social Security, which also took over the Home Office's oversight of adoption in 1973. Functions in regard to child welfare and adoption in Wales were transferred to the Welsh Office.11

(5) Relations with other territories. Relations between the UK government and the governments of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man were the Home Secretary's responsibility from 1801 until 2001, when this was transferred to the Lord Chancellor's Department. The Home Secretary was also responsible for relations with the pre-1972 government of Northern Ireland.12

(6) General public well-being and safety. The Home Office has had various public safety functions, including control of explosives (since 1875) and firearms (since 1920); and policy on dangerous drugs, including drug abuse. In 2001 the Home Office absorbed the Cabinet Office's UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordination Unit. At the same time the Home Office's former responsibilities for liquor and public entertainment licensing, gambling, horse racing, and film and video licensing (though not matters relating to the law on obscenity), were transferred to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Lord Chancellor's Department took over the Home Office's duties in the areas of human rights, open government, freedom of information and data protection; plus royal issues and matters relating to the Church, hereditary peers and the Lord Lieutenants; however, the Home Office continued to be responsible for race equality and race relations.13

(7) Miscellaneous functions. The Home Office had a variety of animal welfare responsibilities, including the protection of domestic animals (under the Protection of Animals Act 1911 and subsequent legislation); protection of wild animals (under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996); policy in regard to pet shops, dog breeding establishments and boarding kennels; policy on dangerous dogs, field sports and game law; and the regulation of experiments on animals (acquired initially under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876). Animal welfare functions were transferred in 2001 to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Responsibility for the electoral system was held by the Home Office from 1921 until 2001, when it moved to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. The latter also took over matters relating to local byelaws. Sunday entertainment and trading were Home Office responsibilities from 1932 until 2001, when they passed to the Department of Trade and Industry, along with the Home Office's responsibilities in regard to summer time and Easter. The Home Secretary's duties under the Burial Acts were transferred to the Local Government Board in 1906, but certain functions in regard to exhumations, burial grounds and the regulation of crematoria were retained. Responsibility for burial laws passed to the Home Office from the Department of the Environment in 1995.14

Other functions formerly exercised by the Home Office but later transferred to other departments include oversight of the yeomanry and militia (transferred to the War Office in 1855); policy in regard to friendly societies (to the Treasury in 1875); overall responsibility for local government, and oversight of the General Register Office (to the Local Government Board in 1871); supervision of the Land Commissioners, formerly the Tithe, Copyhold and Enclosure Commissioners, (to the Board of Agriculture in 1889); the Fisheries Inspectorate (to the Board of Trade in 1886); administration of the Aerial Navigation Acts (to the Air Ministry in 1919); the inspection of mines (to the Mines Department in 1920); the registration of trade unions, and supervision of the Factory Department and Inspectorate (to the Ministry of Labour in 1925 and 1940 respectively); supervision of the workmen's compensation scheme (to the Ministry of National Insurance in 1945); the regulation of advertisements (to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1947); and the regulation of slaughterhouses, markets, and the safety of reservoirs (to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1953, 1954 and 1969 respectively). A number of temporary powers were delegated to the Home Secretary during the Second World War, including oversight of the National Fire Service in England and Wales (disbanded in 1948), and discharge of the functions of Minister of Home Security.15

Research Unit and successors

A Research Unit appears to have been established within the Home Office's Establishments and Organisation Division and Common Services in 1959-1960. By the mid-1970s it had emerged as an independent unit of the Home Office, with responsibility for "research and advice on the Social Sciences, including Criminology".16 These functions had expanded by 1980 to include research and advice on social policy, ethnic relations, the criminal process, patterns of crime, crime prevention, police effectiveness, police management, community studies, juveniles and drugs, and penal policy and practice.17 Around 1982 the Unit was renamed the Research and Planning Unit. Its functions were now described as being "conduct of intra-mural and promotion and commissioning of extra-mural social research, primarily on the criminal justice system[,] collection and dissemination of information about such research, operation[al] research for Home Office departments other than police and fire; planning for the criminal police system".18 In this guise the Research and Planning Unit conducted the first British Crime Survey in 1982, and subsequent sweeps of the Survey in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1996 (see Records in NDAD).

In 1989-1990 the Research and Planning Unit was brought under a new Research and Statistics Department, which also included the Home Office's three Statistics Divisions. The Unit appears to have retained its distinct identity until ca. 1996, when the Research and Statistics Department was reorganised as the Research and Statistics Directorate.19 In March 1998, prior to a further reorganisation, the Directorate was divided into the following units:

1. A Crime and Criminal Justice Unit, dealing with research and statistics relating to patterns of crime, drugs, women, mentally disordered offenders, sex offenders, race relations, the administration of justice, prosecutions, sentencing, appeals, remands, and police statistics and research not conducted by the Home Office's Police Research Group. Its responsibilities included conducting the British Crime Survey and other crime surveys.
2. An Offenders and Corrections Unit, dealing with research and statistics on criminality, the treatment of offenders, and the management of correctional services.
3. An Immigration and General Unit, dealing with research and statistics on immigration and nationality, constitutional and community policy, and fires.
4. An Operational Research Unit, whose function was "to help policy and management colleagues develop solutions to important problems particularly but not exclusively those that require substantial quantitative analysis".
5. A Co-ordination of Computerisation in the Criminal Justice System Unit, responsible for improving the flow and quality of information between the elements of the Criminal Justice System.
6. A Programme Development Unit, "responsible for developing and managing a programme of innovative work on crime and criminal justice, including reducing criminality and domestic violence".
7. An Economics Unit which provided economics advice to the Home Office.
8. A Corporate Management Unit which provided administrative support to the other units of the Research and Statistics Directorate.20

On 1 September 1998 Research and Statistics Directorate was merged with the Home Office's Police Research Group, which had focussed on research and development initiatives relating to police forces in the UK, and the identification and dissemination of good policing practice. The Directorate was renamed Research Development and Statistics Directorate. A new Policing and Reducing Crime Unit was created to incorporate the Police Research Group (renamed Policing Group).21 By 2000 the Directorate had the following internal organisation:

1. Corporate Management Unit, containing a Planning and Administration Group, an Information Technology Group, a Data Collection Unit, and an Information and Publications Group.
2. Crime and Criminal Justice Unit, split into three groups: an Administration of Justice Group, a Patterns of Crime Group, and a Young Offenders and Youth Justice Section. The British Crime Survey was the responsibility of the Crime Surveys Section of the Patterns of Crime Group.
3. Immigration and Community Unit providing advice and information on immigration, asylum and citizenship matters; fire statistics and research; voluntary and community research; race relations research; and social and regulatory statistics.
4. Offenders and Corrections Unit consisting of three groups: Probation, Criminality and International Group; Prison Research and Statistics Group; and Crime Reduction Programme (Offenders).
5. Policing and Reducing Crime Unit consisting of a Policing Group and a Reducing Crime Group. The Unit was "responsible for the conduct and management of research in social and management sciences relevant to the work of the police and crime prevention . . . [and] responsible for the identification and dissemination of good policing practice".
6. Programme Development Unit dealing with programme development and planning; grants management; the oversight of projects, and monitoring and evaluations; dissemination and publications; and conferences and seminars.
7. Economics and Resource Analysis Unit, whose function was "to provide a service of economic advice and analysis to the Home Office".22

One of the main functions of Research Development and Statistics Directorate, and its predecessors, has been to issue publications embodying the results of the Home Office's research and statistical work. These include series of Home Office Statistical Bulletins, Home Office Research Studies and Research Findings; and annual series of Criminal Statistics: England and Wales, Prison Statistics: England and Wales and Control of Immigration Statistics.23 Details of current publications are available on the Directorate's web site.

British Crime Survey: reference CRDA/2

NDAD holds data gathered in various sweeps of the British Crime Survey conducted by the Home Office's Research and Planning Unit and its successors (see Subdivisions), in association with outside contractors. The datasets record respondents' experiences of household and personal crime in the year prior to the Survey, as well as other information on crime-related topics. NDAD also holds extensive documentation relating to the Survey. See the Series Catalogue for further details.

Records of the Home Office are held at the National Archives in HO classes.

For further information on the work of the Home Office, contact the Public Enquiry Team, Room 856, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H 9AT (public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk); or see the web sites for the Home Office and Research Development and Statistics Directorate.

1. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide (Kew: Public Record Office, 1996), Part 1, sections 401/1/1-401/1/2; John Cannon, ed., The Oxford Companion to British History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 486-487.

2. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/1/2.

3. Ibid.; Sir Frank Newsam, The Home Office, New Whitehall Series (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954), pp. 11-12, 25; 10 Downing Street web site, "Delivering effective Government [08 June 2001]" (http://www.pm.gov.uk/news.asp?NewsId=2093) consulted on 27 June 2001.

4. Ibid., pp. 31, 36-39, 137-139, 141.

5. Ibid., p. 143, 149; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/2/8; Home Office, "Home Office Annual Report 1999-2000", sections on "Directorate Responsibilities" and "Executive Agencies", downloaded from the Home Office's web site (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/annrep/2000/sect2c.pdf) on 9 June 2000.

6. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/2/8. Newsam, Home Office, p. 38; Home Office web site, pages on "Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmipris/hmiprisi.htm) and "Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmic/hmici.htm) consulted on 5 March 1999.

7. Newsam, Home Office, pp. 114-122, 125, 132.

8. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/1/2.

9. Ibid.; Newsam, Home Office, pp. 95-110; Home Office web site, page on "Introduction to the Work of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/inw.htm) consulted on 5 March 1999; Home Office,"Home Office Annual Report 1999-2000", sections on "Directorate Responsibilities" and "Executive Agencies", downloaded from the Home Office's web site (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/annrep/2000/sect2c.pdf) on 9 June 2000; Home Office web site, "Machinery of Government: Changes to Home Office Responsibilities" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/machgvt.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001.

10. Newsam, Home Office, pp. 48-51, 56; Home Office web site, pages on "Her Majesty's Fire Services Inspectorate" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/fepd/hmfsi.htm), "Home Office Emergency Planning Division" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd/index.htm), "Fire Safety Unit" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/fepd/fsyui.htm), and "Fire Research and Development Group" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/fepd/frdg.htm) consulted on 5 March 1999; Home Office web site, "Machinery of Government: Changes to Home Office Responsibilities" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/machgvt.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001; Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions web site, "Fire Safety and Fire Service" (http://www.safety.dtlr.gov.uk/fire/index.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001.

11. Newsam, Home Office, pp. 64-66; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/1/2.

12. Newsam, Home Office, pp. 168-170; "LCD takes over responsibility for constitutional representation of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man" (13 June 2001), Lord Chancellor's Department press release 212/01 (on-line copy consulted on 8 August 2001).

13. Ibid., pp. 80-94; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/1/2; Home Office web site, pages on "Constitutional and Community Policy Directorate" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ccpd/ccpdhome.htm), "Race Equality Unit" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/reu/reu.htm), "Freedom of Information Unit" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/foi/index.htm) and "Animals, Byelaws and Coroners Unit" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/abcu.htm); Home Office web site, "Machinery of Government: Changes to Home Office Responsibilities" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/machgvt.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001.

14. Newsam, Home Office, pp. 187-199; Home Office web site, page on "Animals, Byelaws and Coroners Unit" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/abcu.htm); Home Office web site, "Machinery of Government: Changes to Home Office Responsibilities" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/machgvt.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001; Home Office web site, "Animal Welfare Section" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ccpd/aws.htm) consulted on 8 August 2001.

15. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, Part 1, section 401/1/2.

16. Civil Service Department, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1975), col 467.

17. Civil Service Department, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1980), col. 463.

18. Management and Personnel Office, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1982), col 420.

19. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1989), col. 452; Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1990), cols. 442-443; Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1995), col. 390; Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book (London: HMSO, 1996), col. 408.

20. Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate web site (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rsd/director.htm) consulted on 30 March 1998.

21. Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/) consulted on 28 October 1998.

22. Home Office web site, pages on Research Development and Statistics Directorate (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/rds.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/cmurds.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/ccju.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/icu.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/ocu.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/prcu.htm, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/pdu.htm and http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/era.htm) consulted on 9 June 2000.

23. Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site, page on "Research Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) Publications" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/publf.htm) consulted on 5 March 1999.