Should the Home Office be broken up into two units?
“It’s not that the Home Office is too big,It’s that the brains of many of the people who run it are not big enough,” says one former departmental insider,Unwieldy, dysfunctional and plagued by poor morale, the Home Office is once again the subject of debate about whether it is beyond repair and should simply be chopped up into two more manageable units,No 10 is so far showing no appetite for a big restructure, but Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, has acknowledged that she has a turnaround job on her hands along with the new permanent secretary, Antonia Romeo,Politicians have been calling for the Home Office to be split up every couple of years when a major scandal shines a light on its persistent problems, such as those exposed in the Windrush and immigration centre abuse scandals.
Karen Bradley, the home affairs committee chair and a former Home Office minister, is the latest to do so, over its “failed, chaotic and expensive” system of housing those seeking asylum in hotels run by private contractors.It is one of the biggest core departments in Whitehall, with more than 50,000 civil servants.Those who advocate a split argue there could be one organisation to deal with crime, policing and security, and another to oversee borders and immigration.The Home Office was last reorganised by Tony Blair in 2007, who hived off the Department of Justice with responsibility for courts, prison and probation.At the time, John Reid, then home secretary, was the first to acknowledge that the department was not fit for purpose – and the diagnosis does not appear to have changed in almost 20 years.
Since then, many – from Robert Jenrick, the ambitious former Home Office minister, to the Liberal Democrat 2019 manifesto and the Green party this week – have called for it to be further broken down.But successive No 10s have come to the conclusion that rearranging the department will not solve its intractable issues, which range from where and how to house those seeking asylum to dealing with small boat Channel crossings.And many Home Office alumni and experts believe that improved leadership and culture change would be more effective than a structural reorganisation.Nick Timothy, a former Home Office aide to Theresa May, came to the opinion in a recent paper that addressing poor management in the department would be a better use of time than splitting it up.In a 2023 document, recently released to the Times after a legal challenge, he wrote: “Such a move would cause significant administrative disruption, and at a time when the Home Office faces many urgent challenges it would represent an unnecessary distraction from the delivery of core business.
”He also highlighted a “culture of defeatism”, poor relations with other departments, “overly defensive” lawyers, a reluctance by senior officials to tell “difficult truths” to ministers, and a disconnect between officials working in operational roles and those working on policy as priorities for change,Despite her different political position from Timothy, Mahmood appears to have taken his criticisms seriously, saying the report from 2023 was “damning”,At the same time, recommendations for systemic change at the Home Office to protect migrants from its poor decision-making were made in a report after the Windrush scandal, but a number of them have not been implemented – including the recommendation for a migrant commissioner – and the unit in charge of transformation has since been disbanded,Heloise Dunlop, a researcher at the Institute for Government, said many “deep-rooted and deep-seated problems” remained,“If you just move the problems to another department you are not necessarily solving the issues inherent with a particular policy area and you might be taking up so much time with a machinery of government change,” she said.
She also acknowledged that the Home Office was in an “incredibly high-pressure, rapid policymaking situation, especially in asylum policy, which is a difficult space for any department to be in”.Dunlop added: “No part of the Home Office’s brief is easy to deal with but it does have institutional problems that doesn’t make it easy for it to work to tackle these issues it’s facing.”With pressure from the right by the Tories and Reform over the bill for asylum hotels, and from the left by the Green party over the government’s “destructive and hostile” approach to migrants, it may be possible for the government to blame dysfunction at the Home Office for some of its problems on asylum and migration.But having identified that the Home Office is “set up to fail”, Mahmood will have to come to a decision about whether to attempt a long-term transformation of the department or continue persistent fighting fires.
South Africa claim historic World Cup final spot as Wolvaardt blows England away
South Africa made history in Guwahati on Wednesday, after a phenomenal innings from their captain, Laura Wolvaardt, and remarkable figures of five for 20 from Marizanne Kapp helped them to a 125-run win against England and into their first 50-over World Cup final.Wolvaardt took 115 balls to bring up a maiden World Cup hundred, which was reason enough to celebrate. But with wickets tumbling at the other end, and England looking like they might have an easy-enough chase on their hands, she unleashed a superb display of boundary-striking, adding 69 runs in 28 balls.Wolvaardt slammed four sixes down the ground and slog-swept Linsey Smith for 20 runs off the 47th over. Even when she holed out to Lauren Bell in the 48th, Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk took over, hitting 16 off Smith in the 49th over as England’s best death bowler was made to resemble an amateur
Australia will target Freeman at centre in England clash, George Gregan warns
The former Australia captain George Gregan says they will target Tommy Freeman’s defending at outside-centre for England on Saturday.Steve Borthwick’s side kick off their autumn campaign at Twickenham against opponents who consigned them to a dramatic late defeat last year, and the head coach has made some notable selectorial calls.George Ford starts at No 10 instead of Fin Smith, Ford’s Sale Sharks colleague Tom Roebuck is on the wing and, most interestingly, Freeman will play at No 13.The in-form Northampton back will line up in midfield for England for the second time, switching from a more familiar role out wide. He scored four tries in the Saints’ win against Saracens last Friday wearing the No 14 jersey, and outside-centre requires a different set of skills, particularly without the ball
Shohei Ohtani had an off night at the World Series but he still breaks baseball logic
The Dodgers star pitched in Game 3 just 18 hours after setting records with the bat. It’s a reminder of how he makes the miraculous seem mundaneEven Shohei Ohtani’s teammates struggle to find the right adjectives to describe him; ones that express how good he is while emphasizing how unlikely his existence is in the first place.After Monday’s Game 3, when Ohtani became the first player in postseason history to reach base nine times in a World Series game, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman opted for “unicorn,” one of the more common Ohtani descriptors. Starting pitcher Blake Snell, meanwhile, put things simple and plain.“He’s going to do spectacular things all the time,” Snell said
Wallabies resume England rivalry with memories still fresh of Twickenham triumph | Angus Fontaine
Smell that? That delicious whiff, sometimes bitter, but all the sweeter for its bluster? ‘Tis the distinctive funk of Australia-England sporting acrimony back on the breeze. The Kangaroos and England battling over rugby league Tests. The Lionesses and the Matildas resuming their World Cup feud. Stuart Broad and the Barmy Army playing at villainy before the Ashes next month. And the green grass of Twickenham twitching at the Wallabies’ return this weekend
NFL’s No 1 draft pick Cam Ward victim of identity theft in $250,000 scheme
Two people armed with a number of false identities managed to fraudulently obtain a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of loans in the name of Cam Ward, the quarterback of the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans, according to authorities.Albert Weber, 42, and Cyntrelle Lash, 39, are facing charges of identity theft, bank fraud and forgery after their arrests in a case whose victims allegedly include the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, his father and the business that loaned out the money in question, said Capt Jason Rivarde of the sheriff’s office in Jefferson parish, Louisiana, outside New Orleans.While attempts to contact Lash for comment were unsuccessful, Weber vehemently denied wrongdoing, suggesting the actions attributed to him were carried out by someone else who falsely assumed his identity.The case in any event highlights how increasingly common fraud involving professional athletes has become amid rises in their endorsement and salary income, as highlighted by a 2021 report from global accounting and consulting firm EY.As Rivarde put it, beginning in March, Weber and Lash worked together to secure multiple loans cumulatively worth at least $250,000 in the name of Ward, whose four-year rookie contract with the Titans is reportedly worth about $48
The Spin | Sophie Devine’s impact on women’s cricket should be measured in more than statistics
The New Zealand legend played with joy and fun, but was also a true fighter who spanned eras in the women’s gameAs the Women’s World Cup has progressed, sanding down the edges and turning up the four semi-finalists you might have predicted from the start, a sideshow has been quietly playing stage left. A down-to-earth sideshow – just like the woman herself – the Sophie Devine farewell.Devine made her New Zealand debut in October 2006, in an ODI and T20 series against Australia. Nineteen years later, still with the same open face and broad smile, she has played her final one-day international – a losing affair against England neither side will polish up for the mantelpiece. The most memorable moment came at the end with the affectionate guard of honour given to Devine by both sides and the Māori tribute led by Melie Kerr and sung by her teary teammates as the stadium emptied
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