Home Office
Immigration, policing, counter terrorism. Famously the toughest brief in government — every Home Secretary will tell you so, often.
The Home Office exists to perform some of the most fundamental functions of government: border security, immigration, policing, public safety and national security. Citizens may disagree about how these responsibilities should be exercised, but there is broad agreement about the desired outcome. The public expects borders to be controlled, laws to be enforced and immigration systems to operate fairly and efficiently. Judged against those basic expectations, the numbers are damning.
From 2018 to March 2026, a total of 197,000 people were detected arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel. A route that was almost never used before 2018 now accounts for 42 percent of all asylum claims. In 2025 there were 82,100 asylum applications, the third highest annual total on record. The asylum backlog peaked at 134,000 cases in June 2023. It has since fallen to 35,700, a 73 percent reduction, but the total asylum "work in progress" caseload, including appeals and people subject to removal, stood at 224,700 as of June 2024. The system processes faster than it did. It has not caught up with itself.
Hotel accommodation for asylum seekers cost £5.77 million per day in 2024/25, down from £8.3 million per day the previous year. The government says it will end the use of hotels entirely and save £1 billion a year by 2028/29. That promise has been made in various forms by successive Home Secretaries. None has yet delivered on it.
The turnover at the top is itself part of the problem. Since 2010 there have been at least nine different Home Secretaries: Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, Grant Shapps (for six days), James Cleverly, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood. Braverman was sacked, reinstated and sacked again within 14 months. Rudd resigned over the Windrush scandal. Javid lasted a year. No other great office of state has experienced such instability. Each new Home Secretary arrives, announces a new approach, promises control and then leaves before the approach has time to succeed or fail. The permanent officials provide continuity. The political direction lurches.
The department's difficulties did not begin with small boats. For decades governments have pledged to create an immigration system that is orderly, efficient and trusted. Net migration repeatedly exceeded expectations and targets. The Conservative government promised to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. It never came close. Net migration peaked at over 900,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling. Targets were introduced, revised, abandoned and replaced with new targets. Application backlogs expanded. Asylum claims accumulated faster than they were processed. Hotel accommodation, originally presented as temporary, became a long term and expensive feature of the system.
The result is a department trapped in a cycle of reaction rather than control. Problems emerge, emergency measures are introduced, targets are announced and fresh backlogs appear elsewhere. The Rwanda deportation scheme, estimated to have cost over £700 million before a single flight departed, was the most expensive illustration of policy announcement substituting for policy delivery. The current government scrapped it and replaced it with new enforcement measures. Nearly 60,000 people with no right to be in the UK have been removed or deported since the July 2024 election, a 41 percent increase. Deportations of foreign national offenders are up 32 percent. Those are real numbers. Whether they change the trajectory of small boat arrivals remains to be seen.
Policing presents a similar pattern. The Home Office measures success through officer recruitment numbers and funding announcements. The public judges performance differently: whether crimes are investigated, whether antisocial behaviour is addressed and whether communities feel safe. In many parts of the country confidence in visible policing has weakened despite repeated reforms and restructuring.
The Windrush scandal exposed the department's worst instincts. Individuals with every right to live in Britain were wrongly caught up in enforcement processes, denied jobs, housing, healthcare and benefits, and in some cases deported. The compensation scheme has been running for seven years and has paid out £127 million. That figure sounds large until set against the scale of the harm. The scandal was not an isolated error. It revealed weaknesses in decision making, record keeping and accountability within an institution responsible for decisions that can destroy lives.
The Home Office can point to genuine achievements. Britain remains one of the safest countries in Europe by many measures. Counter terrorism operations have disrupted serious threats. Organised crime groups are regularly targeted. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill gives law enforcement new counter terror style powers to disrupt smuggling gangs. A landmark deal with France has put 40 percent more enforcement officers on French beaches. Over 42,000 crossings have been stopped since the 2024 election. These are not trivial.
Yet the department's broader problem is that public confidence is shaped by visible outcomes. Citizens hear promises of secure borders and then see 197,000 small boat arrivals over eight years. They hear promises of faster asylum decisions and see hotel bills of £5.77 million a day. They hear nine Home Secretaries in 16 years promise to fix the system and watch each one leave before the fix arrives.
The Home Office's greatest weakness is not a lack of legislation, funding or political attention. Few departments receive more of all three. Its weakness is delivery. The defining image of the department remains one that suggests control has not yet been achieved. Until the gap between what ministers promise and what voters experience visibly narrows, no amount of enforcement statistics, legislative packages or landmark deals will close the credibility deficit that has defined this department for a generation.
Department Staff
Ministers
Senior Civil Service
The politicians change. These people often stay for years.
Budget · 2025/26
Police funding, immigration enforcement, asylum and asylum accommodation, counter terrorism, the Border Security Command, passports and the security and intelligence agencies. The asylum accommodation overspend was the largest source of in year pressure through 2024/25 and remains the single biggest political risk inside this budget.
Agencies & Arm's Length Bodies (28)
- Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE)
ACE is a Home Office unit that takes a highly innovative approach to solving public sector technology and data challenges. Contact us at ace@homeoffice.gov.uk ACE is part of the Home Office .
- Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs makes recommendations to government on the control of dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs, including classification and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and its…
- Animals in Science Committee (ASC)
ASC is an advisory non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (BSCC)
The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s role is to encourage compliance with the surveillance camera code of practice. BSCC is an independent monitoring body of the Home Office .
- Border Force
Border Force is a law enforcement command within the Home Office. We secure the UK border by carrying out immigration and customs controls for people and goods entering the UK. Border Force is part of the Home Office .
- Border Security Command (BSC)
The Border Security Command provides strategic leadership across the border security system to disrupt the activity of organised crime groups which facilitate irregular migration including small boat crossings.
- Commission for Countering Extremism
The Commission for Countering Extremism supports society to fight all forms of extremism. Commission for Countering Extremism works with the Home Office .
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
The Disclosure and Barring Service helps employers make safer recruitment decisions. DBS is an executive non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Forensic Science Regulator (FSR)
The Forensic Science Regulator ensures that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards.
- HM Passport Office
HM Passport Office is the sole issuer of UK passports and responsible for civil registration services through the General Register Office. HM Passport Office is part of the Home Office .
- Immigration Advice Authority (IAA)
The Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) protects seekers of immigration advice through regulation, enforcement and promoting best practice. IAA is an executive non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Immigration Enforcement
Information about Immigration Enforcement. Immigration Enforcement is part of the Home Office .
- Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI)
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration monitors and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of the immigration, asylum, nationality and customs functions carried out by the Home Secretary and by…
- Independent Family Returns Panel (IFRP)
The IFRP provides independent advice to the Home Office on how best to safeguard children’s welfare during a family’s enforced return. IFRP works with the Home Office .
- Labour Market Evidence Group (LMEG)
The Labour Market Evidence Group is made up of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, Migration Advisory Committee, Department for Work and Pensions, and Skills England.
- Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)
The MAC is an independent, non statutory, non time limited, non departmental public body that advises the government on migration issues. MAC is an advisory non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB)
The National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB) make independent recommendations to the government on the pay and allowances of National Crime Agency (NCA) officers designated with operational powers.
- Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints (OIEC)
We provide a free, independent complaint resolution and investigation service for those who are unhappy with the Home Office’s final response to their complaint. OIEC is part of the Home Office .
- Office of the Independent Prevent Commissioner (OIPC)
The Office of the Independent Prevent Commissioner (OIPC) provides independent oversight of the Prevent programme. OIPC works with the Home Office .
- Police Advisory Board for England and Wales (PAB)
The Police Advisory Board for England and Wales (PABEW) considers draft regulations under the Police Act 1996 about matters such as recruitment, diversity and collaboration between forces.
- Police Discipline Appeals Tribunal (Police Discipline)
The Police (Discipline) Appeals Tribunal hears appeals against the findings of internal disciplinary proceedings brought against members of the police force. Police Discipline is a tribunal of the Home Office .
- Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB)
We provide independent advice to the government on pay and conditions for police officers at or below the rank of chief superintendent. PRRB is an advisory non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Science and Technology Ethics Advisory Committee (STEAC)
The Science and Technology Ethics Advisory Committee (STEAC) is an advisory non departmental public body sponsored by the Home Office. STEAC is an advisory non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Security Industry Authority (SIA)
We are the regulator of the UK’s private security industry. SIA is an executive non departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office .
- Technical Advisory Board (TAB)
The TAB is a non departmental public body which was first established under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and now maintained under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA), with members appointed…
- The Adjudicator’s Office
The Adjudicator’s Office investigates complaints about HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).
- UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS)
The UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) is a collaborative forum through which government, the tech community and the third sector work together to ensure the UK is the safest place in the world to be online.
- UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is responsible for making millions of decisions every year about who has the right to visit or stay in the country, with a firm emphasis on national security and a culture of customer…