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I have reported from Westminster for more than 20 years. Not long after I first arrived, the then Home Secretary, Labour's John Reid, repeated a line he had heard from one of his then department's senior officials – that parts of the Home Office were "not fit for purpose." One of the solutions back then was to take some of the Home Office's responsibilities away and set up a new department – the Ministry of Justice. The thing is, of the two issues we are talking about here, one lands at the Home Office's door (asylum accommodation arrangements) and the other is down to the Ministry of Justice (letting prisoners out by accident). And the criticisms of the Home Office have continued. A report compiled under the last government by a now serving Conservative MP, Nick Timothy, who used to work as a special adviser at the Home Office, paints a deeply unflattering picture. To be fair, the nature and responsibilities of the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice are among the thorniest domestic policy issues. But I am struck when I speak to political figures inside the Home Office that they privately acknowledge that not only was Timothy onto something, but many of his observations from a few years ago are still visible to them today. They hope new leadership – a new Permanent Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo and a new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, can help change that. But there have been plenty of new lead civil servants and new home secretaries in that department over the last two decades. Why all this matters acutely right now is all this represents an overlap of failings on that most prominent of issues – small boats. Little wonder we had the Health Secretary Wes Streeting over the weekend publicly fretting that there is a "deep disillusionment… and a growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country around". And that is an analysis coming from one of those who is responsible for doing so.
