Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the Home Office is “not yet fit for purpose” after a secret damning report on the government department emerged.
Ms Mahmood promised to radically overhaul her department’s staff, structures and culture, saying the findings, reported by The Times, were “all too familiar”.
The report identified a catalogue of failings across the Home Office, claiming it was beset by a “culture of defeatism” on immigration and “a sense that high failure rates are an unavoidable fact of life in the system”.
The “hand-offs between immigration enforcement and other parts of the immigration system are poor, as are the hand-offs with the police and criminal justice system”, the dossier said.
Written by former Home Office special adviser Nick Timothy, who is now a Tory MP, the report was kept secret by the department for more than two years before it was obtained by The Times following a legal challenge.
Too much time was wasted on identity politics and social issues, Mr Timothy wrote – such as “listening circles” in working hours in which civil servants discussed their feelings about social and political issues, including policies they were responsible for implementing.
The report says the Home Office’s failings exacerbated the small boats crisis and left ministers unable to implement their own policies.
The Times says the document reported how the immigration system consisted of “several confused and conflicting systems working to contradictory ends” and that as a result “the enforcement of immigration laws is poor and has grown considerably worse in recent years”.
One of Mr Timothy’s findings reportedly read: “There is a culture of defeatism among officers and a sense that high failure rates are an unavoidable fact of life in the system.”
Mr Timothy reviewed the Home Office’s effectiveness in 2023.
Ms Mahmood said the findings showed the department had not learnt lessons since her predecessor Lord John Reid branded it “not fit for purpose” almost 20 years ago.
In a statement, she 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.
“Things are now changing. I will work with the new permanent secretary to transform the Home Office so that it delivers for this country.”
The Independent has approached the Home Office for comment. In a statement to The Times, it highlighted that the report was conducted under a previous government.
It continued: “The home secretary and permanent secretary are making significant changes to the Home Office to deliver for the UK public to secure our borders, make our streets safer and protect our national security.”
