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Reid wants to split home office
21/01/2007 16:18 - (SA)
London - The crisis-stricken home office
is to be split into two under plans drawn up by home secretary
John Reid and presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair, a
government source confirmed to Reuters on Sunday.
Blair is backing the proposals to divide the sprawling
department into separate ministries controlling justice and
security, the source said.
But it remained unclear whether the plans - reported in two
Sunday newspapers - also commanded the support of Chancellor
Gordon Brown, widely expected to succeed Blair as prime minister
later this year.
The Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer told BBC television: "It
is a very, very serious proposal."
"I think it may well be that the split's time has come as we
face, for example, much greater waves of immigration across the
world, much greater threats of terrorism," he said. No legislation needed
The division of the department - which dates back to 1782 -
could happen quickly as it would require no legislation to be
passed, Falconer said.
Splitting the home office would be the largest Whitehall
reorganisation undertaken since Labour came to power in 1997.
Reid was appointed home secretary last year after the
mistaken release of more than 1 000 foreign prisoners led to the
downfall of his predecessor, Charles Clarke.
But since then the department has continued to be dogged by
a series of blunders - including a failure to input 27 000
British criminals convicted abroad into the police national
computer. 'Sacred cows'
Reid, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said there must be
"no sacred cows" when it came to protecting security and
administering justice.
"Whilst in the short-term my focus will be on putting right
that which needs the most urgent attention ... in the longer
term even more radical change may be unavoidable.
"Nothing must be ruled out if we are to properly protect the
public and ensure that offenders are brought to justice and
effectively punished for their crime," Reid said.
The News of the World said the new departments would have
their own cabinet ministers, with a security ministry covering
counter terrorism, immigration, ID cards, policing and border
control.
Courts, prisons and probation would be the responsibility of
a new justice ministry.
- Reuters
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