The Yorkshire Post says: A new direction. Home Office culture must change

TO many, the Home Office's current failings have parallels with 2006 when it was declared to be not fit for purpose by John Reid because its management shortcomings were so exhaustive.
Sajid Javid arrives at 10 Downing Street for his first Cabinet meeting since being appointed Home Secretary.Sajid Javid arrives at 10 Downing Street for his first Cabinet meeting since being appointed Home Secretary.
Sajid Javid arrives at 10 Downing Street for his first Cabinet meeting since being appointed Home Secretary.

Yet, while the Government will say the current crises are more isolated, it certainly stands accused of institutional indifference after Sajid Javid, like Lord Reid 12 years ago, was tasked with restoring public and political confidence.

Not only has it shown a callous disregard for those Windrush generation migrants who have been wrongly threatened with deportation, and whose plight precipitated the demise of Mr Javid’s predecessor Amber Rudd, but its much-lauded Modern Slavery Strategy – set up in 2014 – is failing to deliver the anticipated help.

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As Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee concludes, victims of modern slavery can face unimaginable horrors but the Government’s good intentions have yet to 
result in coherent action 
to help them.

It is a critique that encapsulates the challenge confronting Mr Javid. If he’s to change the culture of the Home Office, his officials need to appreciate the human consequences of their prevarication which does now appear, on recent evidence, to be endemic.