Reid mulls Home Office split
John Reid is considering splitting the Home Office into two separate departments, according to media reports.
The proposals would see responsibilities for national security and matters relating to criminal justice, including tackling immigration and organised crime, separated.
The home secretary has struggled to turn around the Home Office since taking over from Charles Clarke, who resigned after the foreign prisoners’ deportation row, last May.
Mr Reid’s statement that the department was “not fit for purpose” has come back to haunt him as a series of scandals have hit the Home Office, the most recent of which was the revelation that the number of absconders from Britain’s prisons was unknown.
Most recently the Home Office’s failure to transfer information about criminals committing offences in Europe onto the criminal records bureau (CRB), resulting in four drug-related offenders being passed for work with children, sparked criticism.
Reacting to these incidents, Mr Reid wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that he was determined to instigate “radical change”.
“There must be no sacred cows when it comes to protecting security and administering justice – the two fundamental roles demanded of the Home Office and the home secretary,” he wrote.
“While in the short-term my focus will be on putting right that which needs the most urgent attention – including the way we deal with the transfer of criminal records information and prison pressures – in the long-term even more radical change may be unavoidable.”
But shadow home secretary David Davis – who has led Conservative calls for a separate national security minister – has expressed doubts about the proposed split, warning that a break-up of the department could lead to “a whole new set of problems”.
“It is not sensible to simply say the job cannot be done – we must remember that while the last three years at the Home Office have been its worst three years in its two centuries of existence, previous home secretaries have managed to run the Home Office even when it had more responsibilities (including electoral law and the BBC),” he said.
“It is often the case that when someone says a task is impossible it’s because that someone cannot do it themselves. This seems to be the case with Dr John Reid.”
