Powers of the home secretary

The home secretary is one of the most senior and influential ministers in the UK government, and the holder of a Great Office of State.

For example, Boris Johnson reportedly overruled home secretary Priti Patel on closing UK borders,[1][2] and Margaret Thatcher overruled home secretary Leon Brittan on parole for Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Such powers and tools will be used only as a last resort, and will not be used to interfere with the democratic will of the electorate within a force area, nor seek to interfere with the office of constable, unless the Home Secretary is satisfied on the advice of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary that not to do so would result in a police force failing or national security being compromised.

[12] For example, Tom Winsor, when Chief Inspector of Constabulary in 2021, wrote that, 'In 2015, the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, added child sexual abuse to the Strategic Policing Requirement as a new national threat.

This meant that the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the police have to give special emphasis to tackling child sexual abuse.

[19] Therefore the home secretary has corporate powers in respect of the College derived from the Companies Act 2006.

[35][36] The home secretary initiates and guides legislation through Parliament that creates and abolishes offences, and sets or changes their punishment,[37] thereby shaping society.

For example, Home Secretary Roy Jenkins oversaw measures such as the effective abolition in Britain of both capital punishment and theatre censorship, the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, relaxing of divorce law, suspension of birching and the liberalisation of abortion law.

[38] Simon Heffer wrote that, 'Bogdanor correctly identifies the massive social changes Roy Jenkins accomplished as Home Secretary, which largely invented the society in which, for better or worse, we live today.

The home secretary determines the strategic priorities for the National Crime Agency, but the Director-General has the power to decide which operations to mount, and how they will be conducted.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which established the Police Remuneration Review Body, provides for any secretary of state,[63] in practice the home secretary,[64] to appoint five or more members of this Body, including the deputy chair.

The home secretary personally signs warrants, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, that authorise MI5's most intrusive intelligence-gathering activities.

The home secretary is responsible for the protective security provided to members of the Royal Family and other public figures.

The Public Order Act 2023 provides any secretary of state,[96] in practice the home secretary,[97] with the power to bring civil proceedings and seek injunctions against protesters when 'protest action is causing, or is likely to cause, serious disruption to key national infrastructure or access to essential goods or services in England and Wales, or where protest activities have, or are likely to have, a serious adverse effect on public safety'.

This act outlines the grounds on which the secretary of state must decide whether they are prohibited from ordering the person's extradition.

These are:[101] If none of these four tests provide grounds to refuse the request, the home secretary must order extradition.

This is usually done in the context of national security and counter-terrorism and aims to ensure a person who poses a threat to the United Kingdom cannot return to the country as they otherwise could.

On 25 April 2013, Home Secretary Theresa May laid a Written Ministerial Statement in the House of Commons that redefined the public interest criteria that would be used to refuse or withdraw a passport.

[114] The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 inserted an additional power into the Misuse of Drugs Act, providing for any secretary of state,[115] in practice the home secretary,[116] to make temporary class drug orders by statutory instrument.

[117] From 1894 the home secretary was required to attend royal births to ensure that the baby and potential heir to the throne was a descendant of the monarch, and not an imposter.

If I may for a moment call on my own personal experience, I happened to be Secretary of State for Home Affairs at the time when [Secretary of State for War] Lord Kitchener made his last fatal journey from this country, and just before he sailed from these shores I had a message from the War Office asking me whether I would sign his papers until he came back.