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.”
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. 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.
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.
The Home Office is now the lead government department for immigration, passports, drug control, crime, fire, counter-terrorism, and the police.
- 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.