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Business of the House

The system we have in this country is that Ministers take responsibility for their Departments. At any one time there will be some officials who are performing well and some who are perhaps performing not as well. In my experience of nine years in government, both the home civil service and the foreign service do extremely well, often in difficult circumstances. The fundamental problem with the Home Office, which distinguishes it from any other Government Department, is not the quality of the staff, but the nature of the individuals whom the Home Office must deal with. In every other area of Government activity, local or national, those who are the customers, so to speak, of the Department—schoolchildren, parents, patients—are on the whole willing volunteers, but the last thing the customers of the Home Office are is willing volunteers. Many of them are dysfunctional individuals—criminals, asylum seekers, people who do not wish to be subject to social control, the purpose of the Home Office. It is that which places the burden on the staff and provides a challenge to both staff and Ministers. But we have no proposals to shift from a fundamental aspect of the way we run Government, which is that it is Ministers who are responsible for their Departments.