Mark Sedwill
Permanent Secretary of the Home Office
How did you tackle the biggest challenges facing your organisation in 2014?
Perhaps the biggest challenge the Home Office faces is the sheer scope of our responsibilities to counter terrorism, cut crime and control immigration. A Home Office story led the bulletins every day of a recent week. Earlier this year, problems in HM Passport Office was the hot topic among the media, Parliament and the public. Our current headline challenges are: immigration, terrorism and extremism, child sex exploitation, ebola, and the EU JHA opt-out.
Most departments would be dominated by just one of these. All affect not just the Home Office’s but also the government’s reputation, particularly in an adversarial political climate. So the biggest challenge is to ensure that the department stays on top of all the big issues on the home secretary’s agenda, maintain a grip on the rest of the department’s policy and operational work, and transform our capabilities for the age of austerity and the digital era.
How do I tackle all that? By building and empowering a strong leadership team, leaving me the space to focus up/out on the strategic and down/in when necessary to fix an emerging issue.
What are your department’s top priorities in the last months before the general election?
I have made clear that I expect the whole department to sprint through the finishing tape. We are responsible for several key coalition government commitments on which my Executive Board and I review progress every month.
Despite the fiscal, political and operational challenges, I am confident that we will deliver. That requires the Home Office to operate across traditional boundaries and in partnership within and outwith government at international, national, regional and local levels.
Our goal as a department by the election is consistent competence across all our responsibilities to keep our streets safe and our borders secure.
Favourite Christmas treat?
A child’s excitement on Christmas Eve.
What makes you say ‘Bah, Humbug!’?
Never said it. Can’t imagine I ever will.