About us
Who we are
The Home Office is a diverse organisation made up of public bodies and agencies, as well as the core department.
Home Office headquarters
The Home Office is responsible for protecting the public from terrorism, crime and antisocial behaviour.
Read more about our purpose - working together to protect the public, as well as our strategy, departmental objectives and values.
The two key areas where IT and PPM staff are employed in headquarters are the office of the chief information officer and Home Office IT.
The office of the chief information officer delivers an overarching information management and IT strategy and policy. The next generation IST transformation programme (NGISTT) has been established to assist the Home Office Group to deliver its objectives by giving units the shared IST infrastructure and services they need to work together in the most productive and cost-effective way.
You can also read our information systems and technology strategy.
Home Office IT provides a range of information technology and communications services across the Home Office, and to some other departments and agencies. It is part of the shared services directorate (SSD), which was formed in January 2007. The purpose of the SSD is to provide high quality, value for money, shared services for IT, property, information management and business services that meet the needs of our customers.
Other staff are embedded in units, such as research development and statistics. Jobs could be available in any of the agencies and public bodies listed below.
UK Border Agency
The UK Border Agency is responsible for securing the country's border and controlling migration into the United Kingdom. It manages border control, enforcing immigration and customs regulations. It also considers applications for citizenship, asylum and permission to enter or stay in the United Kingdom.
The business design and development directorate (BD3) was formed in July 2008 to join up the agency’s portfolio of projects and programmes, manage the future business applications strategy and support the business with the resourcing and delivery of its IT-enabled project/programme portfolio.
This is an exciting time for BD3. The directorate is taking a larger role in delivering some of the most challenging and highest profile projects on the transformational government (new window) agenda, for instance e-borders and the immigration casework programme.
e-Borders
The UK Border Agency leads this multi-agency programme to modernise border controls and improve border security by using new technologies and ways of working to better harness passenger information. The programme is leading the way for a number of other large-scale, technology-led projects across the Home Office.
Immigration casework (ICW)
The purpose of the ICW programme is to create a simplified set of immigration processes and systems that are efficient and standardised across the business by 2015, so helping secure our borders and control migration for the benefit of the country. The programme’s main objective is to bring about sustainable change for the agency, with a focus on skills and competencies, as well as training in the use of new technology.
Identity and Passport Service (IPS)
IPS is an executive agency of the Home Office and was established on 1 April 2006. Working with the public and private sectors, it is transforming identity management and authentication in the UK. The scope of its work has grown since 2008 when IPS joined with the General Register Office; certificate-issuing services and life-event registrations are now a vital and growing aspect of the service's work.
IPS provides passport services and identity cards as part of the National Identity Service, for British and Irish nationals and foreign nationals resident in the UK.
The National Identity Service at IPS
The National Identity Service (NIS) exists to provide a comprehensive and secure way of recording basic personal data, making it possible for a person to prove their identity. NIS provides a new way to protect ourselves and our families against identity fraud, and to protect our communities against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. It will also help us to prove our identity in the course of our daily lives, for example when travelling, opening a bank account, applying for a new job, or accessing government services.
It is an exciting time to join the National Identity Service. The programme of work is well under way, and plans to completely transform the passport and registration process are in full swing.
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
SOCA tackles serious organised crime that harms the UK and our citizens. This includes class A drugs, people smuggling and human trafficking, major gun crime, fraud, computer crime amd money laundering. It is run as an executive non-departmental public body of the Home Office.
One of SOCA’s key aims is to reduce the harm caused to the UK by the exploitation of technology, primarily information and communication technology by organised crime. They are working to develop new investigative and intervention tools to disrupt the use of such technology by organised criminals.
Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
CRB is an executive agency of the Home Office, set up to help organisations make safer recruitment decisions. It employs IT architects, business analysts and testers, who are responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of computer systems. They aim to make their services accessible electronically wherever possible, and they already offer their largest customers the ability to submit multiple applications in an electronic form directly, without the need to produce paper applications or send them by post.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
The IPCC's job is to make sure that complaints against the police are dealt with effectively. It sets standards for the way the police handle complaints and, when something has gone wrong, it helps the police learn lessons and improve the way they work. As well as involvement in the police complaints system, it also investigates serious complaints against the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency.
National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)
The NPIA works for the police service and directly supports forces to make improvements to the way they work. The NPIA provides leadership and expertise to the police service in areas as diverse as information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change, and recruiting, developing and deploying people.
IMPACT
Currently, information held by one force is not routinely available to other forces. By giving the police the ability to find and access operational information held by forces across the UK, the IMPACT programme is transforming policing. The programme was established following Sir Michael Bichard's inquiry into the Soham murders. His recommendations included the need to improve the management and sharing of information and intelligence by the police service at national and local levels, and for IT systems to support this.
