Downing Street Says » Machinery of Government Change

» Thursday, March 29, 2007

Machinery of Government Change

Asked if he was happy with the proposal to split up the Home Office, Mr Straw said that he was perfectly happy about it. When speculation first appeared about two months ago, he recalled saying in a radio interview at the time that there had been a change from the time when he had been Home Secretary. Then, terrorism has been a serious concern but, following September 11 and July 7, it had become a total preoccupation anyone who was Home Secretary. He had pointed out that the nature of the demands on the Home Office and the Home Secretary had changed as a result of the change in the terrorist threat. The work of the Home Office had always been subject to adjustment. John Reid, in his comments to the House earlier, had made the point that, originally, there were just three departments of state – the Exchequer, the Foreign Office and the Home Office. Every domestic department now was an off-shoot of the Home Office.

The Leader said that, in addition, there was increasing focus on the criminal justice system, including the courts and the prisons. Back in 1992, his party’s manifesto contained just four paragraphs on law and order – and one related to fencing off waste land! Put to Mr Straw that the change appeared to have been undertaken with indecent haste, he disagreed. The Leader said that today’s announced changes would not take effect until early May – much longer than had occurred previously in machinery of government announcements. Consideration of the latest change had been going on for some time. Asked if there was some kind of "celestial alignment" involved, since the Home Office change would come on the day after the formation of a devolved administration in Northern Ireland on May 8, the Leader said he was not a very good astrologer. He advised the journalist to read the astrological advice at the back of his own newspaper.

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