Home Secretary | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Home Secretary | Ted Carney |
| Shadow Home Secretary | Vacant |
| Department | Home Office |
| Reports to | The Prime Minister |
| Member of | Cabinet |
| Appointed by | The Sovereign, on the advice of the Prime Minister |
| Seat | 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF |
| Shadowed by | Shadow Home Secretary |
The Home Secretary is the minister in charge of the Home Office, responsible for policing, crime, immigration, borders and national security. The office holder is a member of the Cabinet and is appointed by The Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister.
History
The Home Secretary is one of the four Great Offices of State. The post was created in 1782, when the old Secretaries of State were split into a home and a foreign department. The Home Secretary answers to Parliament for the Police Service, sets immigration policy, and brings forward the government's bills on crime, borders and security.
Role
The Home Secretary leads the Home Office. They decide the department's policy within the government's programme, defend its budget, answer questions about it in the House of Commons, and bring forward the bills it needs through Parliament. Like every Cabinet minister, they are bound by collective responsibility: once the Cabinet has decided something, all its members must support it in public or resign.
On the UKOGB website the Home Secretary is the head of the department. They can edit its page, choose who works there and post its announcements, and they get the Cabinet and HM Government roles in the Discord server.
Opposition counterpart
The Shadow Cabinet includes a Shadow Home Secretary, chosen by the Leader of the Opposition. The shadow minister questions the Home Secretary in the Commons, responds to the department's announcements and sets out what the Opposition would do instead.
See also
This page was last edited on 3 November 2026.