The Home Office is a Ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for immigration, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service (MI5). It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism, and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for the Prison Service and Probation Service, but these are now under a newly created Ministry of Justice.

It continues to be known, especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament, by the title, as the Home Department.^[2]

Organisation[link]

The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary, a Cabinet minister, who is supported by the senior civil servant, the Permanent Secretary.

As of April 2012, the Home Office comprised the following agencies, inspectorates, and public bodies:^[3]

Agencies[link]

• Criminal Records Bureau
• Identity and Passport Service
• National Fraud Authority
• UK Border Agency

Inspectorates[link]

• HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
• Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency

Public Bodies[link]

• Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
• Animal Procedures Committee
• Equality and Human Rights Commission
• Independent Police Complaints Commission
• Independent Safeguarding Authority
• Investigatory Powers Tribunal
• Migration Advisory Committee
• National Policing Improvement Agency
• Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
• Office of the Surveillance Commissioners
• Police Advisory Board
• Police Negotiating Board
• Security Industry Authority
• Serious Organised Crime Agency
• Technical Advisory Board

Ministers[link]

The Home Office Ministers are as follows:^[4]

Theresa May is also Minister for Women and Equalities and Lynne Featherstone Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Government Equalities Office. Nick Herbert works between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Priorities[link]

The Department outlined its aims for this Parliament in its Business Plan, which was published in May 2011 and superseded its Structural Reform Plan.^[6] The plan said the department will:

1. Empower the public to hold the police to account for their role in cutting crime

• Introduce directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners and make police actions to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour more transparent

2. Free up the police to fight crime more effectively and efficiently

• Cut police bureaucracy, end unnecessary central interference and overhaul police powers in order to cut crime, reduce costs and improve police value for money. Simplify national institutional structures and establish a National Crime Agency to strengthen the fight against organised crime (and replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency)

3. Create a more integrated criminal justice system

• Help the police and other public services work together across the criminal justice system

4. Secure our borders and reduce immigration

• Deliver an improved migration system that commands public confidence and serves our economic interests. Limit non-EU economic migrants, and introduce new measures to reduce inflow and minimise abuse of all migration routes, for example the student route. Process asylum applications more quickly, and end the detention of children for immigration purposes

5. Protect people's freedoms and civil liberties

• Reverse state interference to ensure there is not disproportionate intrusion into people‟s lives

6. Protect our citizens from terrorism

• Keep people safe through the Government‟s approach to counter-terrorism

7. Build a fairer and more equal society (through the Government Equalities Office)

• Help create a fair and flexible labour market. Change culture and attitudes. Empower individuals and communities. Improve equality structures, frontline services and support; and help Government Departments and others to consider equality as a matter of course

The Home Office publishes progress against the plan on the 10 Downing Street website.^[7]

History[link]

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Lunar House in Croydon, which holds the headquarters of the Home Office UK Border Agency

The former Home Office building at 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London

On 27 March 1782, the Home Office was formed by renaming the existing Southern Department, with all existing staff transferring. On the same day, the Northern Department was renamed the Foreign Office.

To match the new names, there was a transferring of responsibilities between the two Departments of State. All domestic responsibilities were moved to the Home Office, and all foreign matters became the concern of the Foreign Office.

Most subsequently created domestic departments (excluding, for instance, those dealing with education) have been formed by splitting responsibilities away from the Home Office.

The initial responsibilities were:

• Answering petitions and addresses sent to the King
• Advising the King on
  • Royal grants
  • Warrants and commissions
  • The exercise of Royal Prerogative
• Issuing instructions on behalf of the King to officers of the Crown, Lords Lieutenant and magistrates, mainly concerning law and order
• Operation of the secret service within the UK
• Protecting the public
• Safeguarding the rights and liberties of individuals

Responsibilities were subsequently changed over the years that followed:^[8]

• 1793 added: regulation of aliens
• 1794 removed: control of military forces (to Secretary of State for War)
• 1801 removed: colonial business (to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies)
• 1804 removed: Barbary State consuls (to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies)
• 1823 added: prisons
• 1829 added: police services
• 1836 added: registration of births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales
• 1844 added: naturalisation
• 1845 added: registration of Friendly Societies
• 1855 removed: yeomanries and militias (to War Office)
• 1858 added: local boards of health
• 1871 removed: local boards of health (to Local Government Board)
• 1871 removed: registration of births, deaths and marriages (to Local Government Board)
• 1872 removed: highways and turnpikes (to Local Government Board)
• 1875 added: control of explosives
• 1875 removed: registration of Friendly Societies (to Treasury)
• 1885 removed: Scotland (to Secretary for Scotland and the Scottish Office)
• 1886 removed: fishing (to Board of Trade)
• 1889 removed: Land Commissioners (to Board of Agriculture)
• 1900 removed: matters relating to burial grounds (to Local Government Board)
• 1905 removed: public housing (to Local Government Board)
• 1914 added: dangerous drugs
• 1919 removed: aircraft and air traffic (to Air Ministry)
• 1919 removed: use of human bodies in medical training (to Ministry of Health)
• 1919 removed: infant and child care (to Ministry of Health)
• 1919 removed: lunacy and mental health (to Ministry of Health)
• 1919 removed: health and safety (to Ministry of Health)
• 1920 added: firearms
• 1920 removed: Representation of Britain abroad in labour matters (to Ministry of Labour)
• 1920 removed: mining (to Mines Department)
• 1921 added: elections (from the Ministry of Health)
• 1922 removed: relations with Irish Free State (to Colonial Office)
• 1923 removed: Order of the British Empire (to Treasury)
• 1925 removed: registration of trade unions (to Ministry of Labour)
• 1931 removed: county councils (to Ministry of Health)
• 1933 added: poisons
• 1934 removed: metropolitan boroughs (to Ministry of Health)
• 1937 removed: road accident returns (to Ministry of Transport)
• 1938 added: fire services
• 1938 removed: Imperial Service Order and medal (to Treasury)
• 1940 removed: factory inspections (to Ministry of Labour)
• 1945 removed: workmen's compensation scheme (to Ministry of National Insurance)
• 1947 added: infant and child care (from Ministry of Health)
• 1947 removed: regulation of advertisements (to Ministry of Town and Country Planning)
• 1947 removed: burial fees (to Ministry of Health)
• 1947 removed: registration of Building Societies (to Treasury)
• 1948 removed: Broadmoor hospital (to Lunacy Board of Control)
• 1950 removed: structural precautions for civil defence (to Ministry of Works)
• 1950 removed: minor judicial appointments (to Lord Chancellor)
• 1953 removed: slaughterhouses (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government)
• 1954 removed: markets (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government)
• 1956 removed: railway accidents (to Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation)
• 1969 removed: reservoirs (to Ministry of Housing and Local Government)
• 1971 removed: child care in England (to Department of Health and Social Security)
• 1971 removed: child care in Wales (to Welsh Office)
• 1972 removed: Northern Ireland (to Northern Ireland Office)
• 1973 removed: adoption (to Department of Health and Social Security)
• 1992 removed: broadcasting and sport (to the new Department of National Heritage - later the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
• 2007 removed: criminal justice, prisons & probation and legal affairs (to new Ministry of Justice)
• 2007 added: counter-terrorism strategy (from the Cabinet Office)

The Home Office retains a variety of functions that have not found a home elsewhere, and sit oddly with the main law-and-order focus of the department, such as regulation of British Summer Time.

Permanent Under Secretaries of State of the Home Office[link]

• Dame Helen Ghosh 2011-
• Sir David Normington 2006–2010
• Sir John Gieve 2002–2006
• Sir David Omand 1997–2002
• Sir Richard Wilson 1994–1997
• Sir Clive Whitmore 1988–1994
• Sir Brian Cubbon 1979–1988
• Sir Robert Armstrong 1977–1979
• Sir Arthur Peterson 1972–1977
• Sir Philip Allen 1966–1972
• Sir Charles Cunningham 1957–1966
• Sir Frank Newsam 1948–1957
• Sir Alexander Maxwell 1938–1948
• Sir Russell Scott 1932–1938
• Sir John Anderson 1922–1932
• Sir Edward Troup 1908–1922
• Sir Mackenzie Dalzell Chalmers 1903–1908
• Sir Kenelm Digby 1895–1903
• Sir Godfrey Lushington 1885-1895

Executive agencies[link]

• Criminal Records Bureau reporting to the Minister of State (Policing and Criminal Justice)
• Identity and Passport Service reporting to the Minister of State (Immigration)
• UK Border Agency reporting to the Minister of State (Immigration)

Anonymous attack[link]

On April 7 2012, hacktivist group Anonymous temporarily took down the UK Home Office website. The group took responsibility for the attack, the attack was part of ongoing Anonymous activity in protest against the deportation of hackers as part of Operation TrialAtHome. One Anonymous source claimed in their tweet it was also launched in retaliation for "draconian surveillance proposals".^[9]

Location[link]

The Home Office building at 2 Marsham Street, London

From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was located at 50 Queen Anne's Gate, a Brutalist office block in Westminster designed by Sir Basil Spence, close to St. James's Park tube station. Many functions, however, were devolved to offices in other parts of London and the country, notably the headquarters of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon.

In Spring 2005, the Home Office moved to a new main office designed by Sir Terry Farrell at 2 Marsham Street, Westminster, SW1P 4DF, on the site of the demolished Marsham Towers building of the Department of the Environment.^[10] The contract to build the new headquarters was a public-private partnership deal intended to last for around 29 years.

For external shots of its fictional Home Office, the TV series Spooks uses an aerial shot of the Government Offices Great George Street instead, serving as stand-in to match the distinctly less modern appearance of the fictitious accommodation interiors the series uses.

Research[link]

To meet the UK's 5-year science and technology strategy,^[11] the Home Office sponsors research in police sciences including:

• Biometrics – including face and voice recognition
• Cell type analysis – to determine the origin of cells (e.g. hair, skin)
• Chemistry – new techniques to recover latent fingerprints
• DNA – identifying offender characteristics from DNA
• Improved Profiling – of illicit drugs to help identify their source
• Raman Spectroscopy – to provide more sensitive drugs and explosives detectors (e.g. roadside drug detection)
• Terahertz imaging methods and technologies – e.g. image analysis and new cameras, to detect crime, enhance images and support anti-terrorism

Devolution[link]

Most front-line law and order policy areas, such as policing and criminal justice, are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland but the following reserved and excepted matters are handled by Westminster.

Scotland^[12]

Reserved matters:

• The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
• Extradition legislation, but Scottish Ministers (through the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service) have executive responsibility for all aspects of mutual legal assistance
• Most aspects of Firearms legislation, but Scottish Ministers have some executive responsibilities for the licensing of firearms and will gain more when the Scotland Bill 2011 receives royal assent
• Immigration and nationality
• Scientific procedures on live animals

The Scottish Government Justice and Communities Directorates are responsible for devolved justice and home affairs policy.

Northern Ireland^[13]

Excepted matters:

• Extradition (as an international relations matter)
• Immigration and nationality

The following matters were not transferred at the devolution of policing and justice on 12 April 2010 and remain reserved:^[14]

• Drug classification
• Parades
• Security of explosives
• Serious Organised Crime Agency

The Home Office's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:

• Department of Justice (policing, public order and community safety)
• Northern Ireland Office (national security in Northern Ireland)^[15]

The Department of Justice is accountable to the Northern Ireland Executive whereas the Northern Ireland Office is a UK Government department.

Wales

Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific policy areas are transferred to the National Assembly for Wales rather than reserved to Westminster.

This section requires expansion.

See also[link]

• Home Office Large Major Enquiry System
• John Gieve
• Ministry of Home Security
• United Kingdom budget
• UK Immigration Service

References[link]

External links[link]

• Home Office—main website
• Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies—gives a history of responsibilities of the Home Office, including which functions were merged into or transferred away from the Home Office
• Home Office Watch - list of Home Office mistakes and errors

v t e Home Office of the United Kingdom Headquarters: 2 Marsham Street Ministers Home Secretary · Minister of State for Immigration · Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice · Minister for Security · 2 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State Executive agencies Criminal Records Bureau · Identity and Passport Service · UK Border Agency Non-departmental public bodies Criminal Cases Review Commission · Independent Police Complaints Commission · National Policing Improvement Agency · Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner · Parole Board for England and Wales · Police Negotiating Board · Serious Organised Crime Agency · Security Industry Authority

v t e Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom Ministerial departments Attorney General's Office · Cabinet Office · Department for Business, Innovation and Skills · Department for Communities and Local Government · Department for Culture, Media and Sport · Department for Education · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Department for International Development · Department for Transport · Department for Work and Pensions · Department of Energy and Climate Change · Department of Health · Foreign and Commonwealth Office · Government Equalities Office · Her Majesty's Treasury · Home Department (Home Office) · Ministry of Defence · Ministry of Justice · Northern Ireland Office · Office of the Advocate General for Scotland · Office of the Leader of the House of Commons · Office of the Leader of the House of Lords · Scotland Office · Wales Office Non-ministerial departments Charity Commission for England and Wales · Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt · Crown Estate · Crown Prosecution Service · Food Standards Agency · Forestry Commission · Government Actuary's Department · Her Majesty's Land Registry · Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs · Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills · Office of Fair Trading · Office of Gas and Electricity Markets · Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation · Office of Rail Regulation · Office of the Parliamentary Counsel · Ordnance Survey · Public Works Loan Board · Serious Fraud Office · The National Archives · Treasury Solicitor's Department · UK Statistics Authority · UK Trade & Investment · Water Services Regulation Authority Category ·  Commons

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since June 2011. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since June 2011. It may contain original research. Tagged since June 2011.

Christopher Joseph Pirillo
Pirillo speaking at Gnomedex in 2007
Born	(1973-07-26) July 26, 1973 (age 38) Des Moines, Iowa
Occupation	YouTube Partner, Magazine columnist, tech expert for CNN.com,[1] book author, conference organizer, public speaker, owner of a blogging network, runs a social community, provider of video content
Years active	1996–present
Board member of	Ustream, Inc.
Spouse	Gretchen Hundling (m.1998-2004) Ponzi Black-Pirillo (m.2006-2009) Diana Morales (m.2012-present)
Website
chris.pirillo.com lockergnome.com gnomies.com geekwith.com

Christopher Joseph Pirillo (born (1973-07-26)July 26, 1973) is the founder and maintainer of Lockergnome, which is a network of blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities. Lockergnome was the first website Chris registered back in 1996. He spent two years hosting the TechTV television program Call for Help, where he also hosted the first annual Call-for-Help-a-Thon. He now hosts videos on several Internet sites, including CNN, YouTube, ustream.tv, CBC and his own website.^[2]

Biography[link]

Chris Pirillo was born on July 26, 1973 in Des Moines, Iowa to Judy and Joe Pirillo. Chris has two brothers, Benjamin and Adam. He studied at the University of Northern Iowa, where he majored in English education, eventually graduating with an English degree. For a short time, he was a 7th grade English student teacher at Coke R. Stevenson Middle School in San Antonio, Texas.

He currently lives in Seattle, Washington^[3] with his wife, Diana.^[4]

Pirillo streams a live video of his home office out via ustream.tv and frequently records videos on various tech-based and non-tech-based topics. During the course of 2011, Pirillo achieved 200,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 100,000 dedicated Twitter followers. His current video views of all time stand at just over 127 million. Chris used to host, 'TLDR' (The Lockergnome Daily Report) on weekdays, streamed it live from his home office. He now hosts a shortor verison of TLDR called 'Geekout'. Pirillo has been married twice before to Gretchen Hundling and Ponzi Black-Pirillo.

Projects[link]

Since 2001, Pirillo has hosted Gnomedex, which is a yearly conference covering art, science, social media, blogs, and new and emerging technologies and concepts, such as Web 2.0. Gnomedex 10 was held in August 2010 in Seattle, Washington.^[5] He streams Gnomedex live so his community can participate via chat.

Pirillo streams video live from his home office on Ustream, and his stream at http://live.pirillo.com is one of the more popular, with over 5,000 regular watchers.^{[citation needed]} His streams, also broadcast on YouTube, focus on software, hardware, news, reviews, computers, iPhone applications, operating systems, gaming, and other technology-related topics and events. As of 12 March 2012 (2012 -03-12)^[update], Pirillo has had over 131,000,000 video views.^[2] As of 17 November 2011 (2011 -11-17)^[update], he reached over 200,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.^[6]

Pirillo runs several online communities. His Lockergnome blogging network has over 100,000 members. Geeks, his Ning-based social network, has over 24,000 users.^[7] Lockergnome began as a technology mailing list in 1996, offering tricks and tips for operating systems and applications, software suggestions (with an emphasis on public domain and shareware software), and web site recommendations.^[8] Several mailing lists are now provided, offering technology advice and tips^[9] and other content syndicated from Lockergnome's blogs and web forums, including IT Professionals^[10] and problem solvers.^[11]

Pirillo's advocacy of new technology went as far as setting up, with Jake Ludington, a BitTorrent server at vistatorrent.com "to help Microsoft get [Windows Vista] Beta 2 in users' hands" in 2006.^[12] According to Information Week, Microsoft had "reported problems in delivering Beta 2 electronically ... recommending on its own Web site that users order the DVD rather than download the 3.5-4.4GB file".^[12] Microsoft sent a cease and desist e-mail, and the pair complied.^[12][13]

In January 2010, he began hosting "Help Desk with Chris Pirillo", a weekly live video call-in show on Microsoft's Channel 9 web site.^[14] The show is at the pilot stage. Since early 2011, Pirillo has been one of the featured "CoolHotNot Tech Xperts," along with John C. Dvorak, Jim Louderback, Dave Graveline, Robin Raskin, Dave Whittle, Steve Bass, and Cheryl Currid. At CoolHotNot's web site, he shares his "Loved List" of favorite consumer tech products, along with a "Wanted List" and a "Letdown List".^[15]

In 2012, Pirillo started a subscription-based service called Gnomies^[16] to offer entrepreneurial advice, coaching and consulting service to members. On top of that, extra services were created for the Gnomies such as a private Minecraft and TeamSpeak server. The TeamSpeak server runs over the live video feed at url=http://www.live.pirillo.com/, giving insight in to what the Gnomies are up to. He also started daily vlogs about his life called Pirillo Vlogs which his wife Diana edits before they are uploaded to his YouTube account.

Pirillo is the author of several books, including Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing, Online! The Book with John C. Dvorak and Wendy Taylor, and several ebooks.^[17][18]

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Chris Pirillo on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons

• Chris Pirillo at the Internet Movie Database
• Chris Pirillo's official blog
• Chris Pirillo on Twitter
• Chris Pirillo on Facebook
• Chris Pirillo on Google+
• Chris Pirillo's channel on YouTube
• Lockergnome.com
• Lockergnome.net Questions and Answers
• Geeks Social Network
• Chris Pirillo's current list of best, most wanted, and worst tech products