Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has admitted that the Home Office is “not yet fit for purpose”.
She vowed to rebuild the department, which is responsible for internal security, public safety and immigration, so that it “delivers for this country”.
A damning report labelled the Home Office, which Ms Mahmood took charge of last month, as having a “culture of defeatism” on immigration.
The two-month review of its effectiveness was led by the former Home Office special adviser Nick Timothy, now a Conservative MP, and was commissioned in 2022 by the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman.
It concluded that “too much time is wasted” on identity politics and social issues, adding that civil servants meet in “listening circles” to discuss them.
The report also found that no single official is responsible for the immigration system as a whole, describing the structure as “uneven”.
On Wednesday, Mahmood said: “This report, written under the last Government, is damning. To those who have encountered the Home Office in recent years, the revelations are all too familiar.
“The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose, and has been set up for failure. As this report shows, the last Conservative Government knew this, but failed to do anything about it.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has admitted that the Home Office is ‘not yet fit for purpose’
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She added: “Things are now changing. I will work with the new permanent secretary to transform the Home Office so that it delivers for this country.”
On Wednesday, over 200 migrants crossed the channel, taking the total number of arrivals so far this year to 36,956.
The figure is 70 higher than the 36,816 migrants who crossed the Channel illegally during the whole of 2024.
