Editing Home Secretary (section)

==History==
The title [[Secretary of State (England)|Secretary of State in the government of England]] dates back to the early 17th century.<ref name=":4" /> The position of Secretary of State for the Home Department was created in the [[Constitution of 1782|British governmental reorganisation of 1782]], in which the responsibilities of the [[Secretary of State for the Northern Department|Northern]] and [[Secretary of State for the Southern Department|Southern Department]]s were reformed into the [[Foreign Office]] and [[Home Office]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Sainty|first=J. C.|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol2/pp1-21#h3-0008|title=Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2 – Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660–1782|via=British History Online|publisher=University of London|year=1973|pages=1–21|language=en|chapter=Introduction |quote= At the Restoration [in 1660] the practice of appointing two Secretaries of State, which was well established before the Civil War, was resumed. Apart from the modifications which were made necessary by the occasional existence of a third secretaryship, the organisation of the secretariat underwent no fundamental change from that time until the reforms of 1782 which resulted in the emergence of the Home and Foreign departments. ... English domestic affairs remained the responsibility of both Secretaries throughout the period. In the field of foreign affairs there was a division into a Northern and a Southern Department, each of which was the responsibility of one Secretary. The distinction between the two departments emerged only gradually. It was not until after 1689 that their names passed into general currency. Nevertheless the division of foreign business itself can, in its broad outlines, be detected in the early years of the reign of Charles II.}}</ref>

In 2007, the new Ministry of Justice took on the criminal justice functions of the Home Office and its agencies.<ref>{{Cite web|last=House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee|date=17 July 2007|title=The creation of the Ministry of Justice|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmconst/466/466.pdf|access-date=30 June 2021|website=[[parliament.uk]]|page=3}}</ref>