Unit 1: Government and Politics
Assignment 2: Describe the role and responsibilities of government departments in relation to the Public Services.

In this assignment I am going to describe the role and responsibilities of government departments in relation to the Public Services.

The Home Office
The home office leads on immigration and passports, drug policy, crime policy and counter terrorism and works to ensure visible, responsive and accountable policing in the UK. The home office responsibilities include working on the problems caused by illegal drug use, considering applications to enter and stay in the UK and supporting visible, responsible and accountable policing by empowering the public and freeing up the police to fight crime. The home office focus on empowering the public to hold police to account for their role in cutting crime, free up the police to fight crime more effectively and professionally and also to protect our citizen from terrorism.

The home office funds many independent organisations whose work, directly or indirectly, helps the police. An example of these non-departmental public bodies is the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) and the police advisory board. The IPCC exists to better the public’s confidence in the public complaints and allegations of misconduct against the police handles appeals. The home secretary is Theresa May, her overall responsibilities are for the work of the department, Security, counter-terrorism, legislative programmes and expenditure issues.

Who is in charge?
Theresa May, MP, is in charge of the Home Office (home secretary). She is responsible for the internal affairs of England and Wales and overlooks immigration and citizenship affairs for the whole UK. Her main job is to sort out policing of great Britian such as national security and MI5. Mark Sedwill is the permanent secretary for the home office. The Home Office is located at 2 Marsham Street, London. The home secretary runs the Home Office

How is it organised?
There are three sections in the Home Office:
Agencies- passport office, fraud
Inspectorates- inspectorate of constabulary, chief inspector of borders and immigration
Public bodies- misues of drugs, animal procedures, disclosure and barring service, equality and human rights commission, police complaints, investigatory powers tribunal, migration, policing improvement, immigration services, surveillance commissioners, police advisory, police negtiation, security industry, organised crime agency, technical advisory

In all of these sections there are ministers that are in charge of them. For example, Damian Green is responisble for the Crime and justice policy and Mark Harper is in charge of Border control and immigration.

Agencies
HM Passport Office
Responsible for immigration, the passport control agency was formed at the beginning of April in 2006. Mark Harper is in charge of the agency. They sort out the passports for citizens so that they can travel globally, as well as producing statistics and research to do with migration. The Independent chief inspector of borders and immigration is part of the inspectorates section of the home office. They are responsible for looking over work being done by the UK Border Force. Their main responsibility is not to search through single cases but to insure that policies are being fulfilled.

National Fraud Authority
The National fraud authority works to tackle frauds across the spectrum, but also works on fraud types and fraud issues that are a notable problem. These include identity fraud, mortgage fraud, accommodation addresses, mass marketing fraud and fraud affecting small and medium sized businesses. The NFA also produces the Annual Fraud Indicator, which estimates the cost of fraud. The current estimate puts the cost of fraud to the UK at £30 billion a year, which equates to £621 a year for every adult in England and Wales.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
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