Home Secretary

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The Secretary of State for the Home Department, known as the Home Secretary, is the chief United Kingdom government minister responsible for law and order (except in Scotland). The Home Office's remit includes policing, the criminal justice system, the prison service, internal security, and matters of citizenship and immigration.

Scottish and English law are separate. In Scotland, Scottish law operates. The Scottish parliament is now responsible for law making, and policing in Scotland. The Home Office has also previously dealt with social issues, including social exclusion, equality and race relations. Responsibility for social exclusion is now held by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. However, the Home Office continues to have responsibility for race equality, charities, the voluntary sector, and community policy. The position of Home Secretary is considered one of the great offices of state.

Unlike many other governments, the British government has separate departments for the issues dealt with by the Home Office and for legal, judicial and civil rights issues; these have been dealt with by the Lord Chancellor's Department. Although there have been calls for the merger of this department with the Home Office, in June 2003 the government announced that it intended instead to abolish the office of Lord Chancellor and replace his department with a Department for Constitutional Affairs headed by a Secretary of State.

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, leaving in addition to law and order a variety of miscellaneous tasks that have not yet been allocated to a government minister. Consequently Home Secretaries can find themselves dealing with matters as diverse as wild birds in Scotland and which towns in England and Wales are entitled to call themselves cities. It is, however, the law and order function of the department that predominates overwhelmingly.

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Home Secretaries since 1782

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Related pages

Related postings in other countries:

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External links

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