Shabana Mahmood says Home Office ‘not yet fit for purpose’

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood said her department was “not yet fit for purpose” after an internal report found it dysfunctional and disconnected from its core functions.

Mahmood, who took office last month, said the Home Office was “preparing to fail” but was trying to rebuild it to “serve this country”.

His comments came after a “damning” report by The Times revealed a “culture of defeat” around immigration and failure was making it harder to tackle crime and small boat crossings.

The report, prepared by former Home Office special adviser Nick Timothy, who is now a Conservative Party MP, was commissioned in 2022 by then home affairs minister Suella Braverman.

Timothy was given access to the department and officials to conduct a two-month review of his effectiveness.

It found that “a great deal of time was wasted” at the Home Office on identity politics and social issues, including “listening circles” during working hours where civil servants met to discuss their feelings on social and political issues.

He warned that the ministry’s performance was “uneven” due to fragmented structures and the absence of a single official responsible for the migration system as a whole.

Among the most serious criticisms was the handling of asylum and immigration. The report described the system as “lethargic”, with a backlog of 166,000 asylum cases and interviews often delayed for up to two years.

Timothy found that many officers refuse to work in immigration because they are either “ethically” opposed to controlling borders or are afraid of being blamed if things go wrong.

He said the asylum process took an overly “defensive approach” and that “assessments of possible legal challenges and even the possibility of defeat” were used “as a reason not to do anything”.

He also highlighted chronic problems with data and technology, warning that the department relied on outdated systems that “make it impossible to answer simple questions quickly.”

Timothy rejected calls to split the department, saying it was a “distraction from the conduct of core business.”

Instead, he called for urgent investment in modern, interoperable systems to improve decision-making.

“This report, written during the last Government period, is damning. For those who have encountered the Ministry of Internal Affairs in recent years, these statements sound all too familiar.

“The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose and was set up to fail. As this report shows, the last Conservative government knew this but could do nothing about it.

“Some things are changing now. Together with the new permanent secretary, I will work to transform the Ministry of Internal Affairs to serve this country.”

Mahmood’s words echo those of former Labor Home Secretary John Reid, whose warning two decades ago caused one of the biggest shakeups in Whitehall.

In May 2006 Reid told MPs that the immigration system was “not fit for purpose” after it was revealed that foreign prisoners were being released without being considered for deportation.

Reid’s warning triggered major reforms to how the Justice Department manages prisons and probation.

A senior source told the BBC that Permanent Secretary Antonia Romeo aims to make the Home Office “the ‘best’ department in Whitehall and the target department for top talent”.

“Antonia will be ruthless in transforming the Home Office to bring it into line,” the source said.