Mahmood says Home Office ‘not fit for purpose’ after secret report

Shabana Mahmood has admitted the Home Office is “not yet fit for purpose” after a secret report found failures including a “culture of defeatism” on immigration within the department.

The Home Secretary vowed to overhaul the department, which she said had been “set up to fail”, and described revelations in the review written under the previous government as “all too familiar”.

The Home Office sought to keep the report secret for more than two years before it was obtained by The Times following a legal challenge by the newspaper.

Written by former Home Office special adviser Nick Timothy, who is now a Tory whip, it warned of “several confused and conflicting systems working to contradictory ends” resulting in “poor” enforcement of immigration laws.

It said that 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.”

Mr Timothy, who was given access to the department during a two-month review, also found an overly “defensive approach” among the Home Office’s lawyers and a reluctance among senior officials to tell “difficult truths” to ministers.

The report said “too much time is wasted” on identity politics and social issues, with staff spending work hours in “listening circles” to discuss their feelings about such matters, according to The Times.

Ms Mahmood said on Wednesday: “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.”