Home Office
The Home Office was founded in 1782 as a foundational part of the security and economic prosperity of the United Kingdom. The office came into existence in order to reorganize the business undertaken by the Secretaries of State, creating the “Home Secretaries.”1
In March 1782, the Home Office consisted of a Secretary of State, two Under Secretaries, a Chief Clerk and ten other Clerks. By May 1782, the Home Office took on more responsibilities such as reporting on the acts of colonial legislatures.2 In September 1793, the Home Office took over the duty of keeping the criminal register. This continued into the 1800s when Henry Bright wrote to the Home Office to suggest Vancouver Island as an ideal place to establish a convict colony.3 The office's tasks increased in the mid-nineteenth century when it took on the business relating to immigration in 1836 and turnpike roads and highways in 1853.4
The Home Office is now the lead government department for immigration, passports, drug control, crime, fire, counter-terrorism, and the police.5
  • 1. Home Office: About Us, GOV: UK; Introduction, in Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 5, Home Office Officials, 1782-1870, ed. J. C. Sainty, (London, 1975), p.1-10.
  • 2. Introduction, in Office-Holders in Modern Britain.
  • 3. Waddington to Merivale, 16 Marcch 1853, CO 305/4, 3432, p.205.
  • 4. Introduction, in Office-Holders in Modern Britain.
  • 5. Home Office: About Us.
Mentions of this organization in the documents
People in this document

Bright, Henry

Places in this document

Vancouver Island