About us

Home Office structure

With a wide range of responsibilities the Home Office is one of the largest government departments.

The heads of the organisation

• The Home Secretary is head of the Home Office and is responsible for all of our work
• The Permanent Secretary, David Normington, is the senior civil servant; he ensures the organisation achieves the goals set by the Home Secretary

Home Office headquarters

Our headquarters contain:

• the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, which works in partnership with other departments and agencies to ensure a more effective and coordinated response to the threats to our security
• the Crime Reduction and Community Safety Group, which works through the police service and other partners
• a small strategic centre, which advises the Home Office board on overall strategy and direction, as well as the allocation of resources
• professional services, including legal advice, analysis and communications support, and programme and project management support

Our agencies

Three agencies provide directly managed frontline services from within the Home Office:

The UK Border Agency (new window):

• strengthens our borders
• makes fast-track asylum decisions
• ensures and enforces compliance with our immigration laws
• boosts Britain's economy by bringing the right skills here from around the world
• ensures Britain is easy to visit legally

The Identity and Passport Service (new window):

• issues UK passports to British nationals living in the UK
• develops the National identity Scheme to provide a secure and straightforward way to safeguard personal identities from misuse

The Criminal Records Bureau (new window):

• helps organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors identify candidates who may be unsuitable to work with children or other vulnerable members of society

The Home Office is also responsible for:

• the Police Service in England and Wales (new window)
• a number of smaller services and public bodies, which are independent elements of the Home Office

In this section

• Our smaller services and public bodies

Internet links

(Links will open in a new window)

• Border and Immigration Agency
• Identity and Passport Service
• Criminal Records Bureau
• UK Police Service

We are not responsible for the content of external websites.