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Home Office

Home Office

4 3.7
A UK government department that handles immigration, security and police matters
  • proper noun
  • /həʊm ˈɒfɪs/
  • UK
translation icon : Ministerio del Interior
  • If you don't respond to the complaint, I shall have to take it up with the Home Office.

And and even you had diplomats office actually sent to the Home Office a letter.

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Examples

  • The Home Office has issued a statement urging people to stay in their homes and await further instruction.

  • This is my associate from the Home Office.

  • That is why the Home Office is taking action to deal with that.

  • I have a friend in the Home Office.

  • I once worked for the Home Office.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Significantly, the chair of this group was a Home Office minister.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Unlike other police forces, the Met is under direct control of the Home Office.

    Blog text (8)
  • He works at the Home Office doing various things.

  • Asylum seekers are questioned by the Home Office about how bad the torture they experienced in their country really was.

    Blog text (28)
  • The Home Office announced new measures to improve immigration control.

Surface Forms

Morphology

Home + office

The parts 'home' (meaning domestic) and 'office' (an official place/department) give a clue that this is a government body dealing with domestic/internal affairs, so a learner who knows the words can infer a general sense. However, as a capitalized proper name for a specific UK department with a particular remit (immigration, security, law and order), the precise institutional meaning is language- and culture-specific and not fully predictable, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

The name Home Office comes from the idea of an office that looks after a country's home affairs. So today Home Office means the government department that handles 'home affairs' such as immigration, security and law and order.