Home Office

This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch.

The Home Office is a leading British governmental department that is responsible for policy issues surrounding immigration, passports, drugs, crime, the police and counterterrorism. The current leader of the Home Office is Theresa May (MP).

The Home Office has two main sister departments that are involved in work surrounding immigration, passports and counterterrorism. These are: the Identity and Passport Service and the UK Border Agency.

Goals

The Home Office states that its aims and objectives are based on seven key issues:

• Help people feel safer in their homes and local communities
• Support visible, responsive and accountable policing
• Protect the public from terrorist attack
• Cut crime, especially violent, drug and alcohol-related crime
• Strengthen our borders, fast track asylum decisions, ensure and enforce compliance with our immigration laws, and boost Britain's economy
• Safeguard people's identity and the privileges of citizenship
• Work with our partners to build an efficient, effective and proportionate criminal justice system

People

Ministers

• Theresa May - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• John Hayes - Minister of State for Security
• Mike Penning - Minister of State for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims
• James Brokenshire - Minister of State for Immigration
• Karen Bradley - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime)
• Lord Ahmed of Wimbledon - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Former

• Norman Baker - Minister of State for Crime Prevention
• Michael Bates - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Criminal Information

Special Advisers

• Stephen Parkinson - appointed as special adviser to Theresa May in July 2013, previous jobs include working at the well-connected lobbying agency Quiller and as national organiser of the victorious cross-party NO to AV campaign for the referendum in May 2011. Previously, Stephen worked at the Conservative Central Office, where he worked at the heart of the party's target seats campaign for the 2010 general election. Before that, he was director of research at the Centre for Policy Studies, the free market think-thank. Stephen first worked in the Conservative Research Department, covering the home affairs desk during the 2005 general election.
• Alex Dawson - appointed as a spad to [[Theresa May] in May 2015. Dawson is a former adviser to David Cameron and 10 Downing Street, helping the Prime Minister prep for PM Questions and taking charge of the party's research department.
• Liz Sanderson - appointed as a spad to Theresa May in May 2014. Previously a journalist at the Daily Mail.

Former

• Nick Timothy - was the Home Secretary’s special adviser from 2010 to 2015. Previous roles include deputy director of the Conservative Research Department (2007-10), where he helped to contribute to the 2010 general election manifesto and edited the 2010 edition of the ‘Campaign Guide’; Nick was a member of David Cameron’s PMQs team and the Party’s by-elections team. Earlier in his career Nick worked in the insurance industry.
• James Sorene