Leaked review reveals unlawful detentions, deadly neglect, and chaos inside the Home Office

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has branded the Home Office “not yet fit for purpose” after the release of a long-suppressed report exposing deep-rooted dysfunction and a disturbing record of failure.

The 2023 review, written by former Home Office adviser Nick Timothy, was kept secret for two years before being released following a legal battle by The Times. It lays bare a department consumed by confusion, distrust, and denial — one that Mahmood now vows to overhaul from the ground up.

The document, commissioned under the previous Conservative government, outlines a damning list of shortcomings. It describes a “culture of defeatism” surrounding immigration, a “defensive” legal culture unwilling to face “difficult truths”, and an obsession with internal social debates that distracted staff from critical duties.

Timothy’s findings point to a bureaucracy collapsing under its own weight — paralysed by internal politics and a chronic fear of accountability. He wrote that “too much time is wasted” on “identity politics and social issues”, with staff reportedly spending hours in “listening circles” rather than resolving mounting crises.

Even more alarming is the report’s link between this dysfunction and the humanitarian disaster at the Manston asylum centre in Kent. In 2022, officials relied on what Timothy called “fatally overoptimistic” forecasts that resulted in catastrophic overcrowding. More than 18,000 people were unlawfully detained in squalid, disease-ridden conditions. Outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies swept through the facility, forcing the Home Office to admit it had lost control.

The fallout did not end there. Earlier this month, a coroner ruled that the Home Office missed crucial opportunities to assess the mental health of an asylum seeker before he was transferred to the Bibby Stockholm barge, where he died in December 2023. The case has reignited debate over whether systemic negligence inside the department cost lives.

Timothy’s review also exposes a breakdown in trust between the Home Office and other government departments, which became “particularly uncooperative” after the Windrush scandal. That scandal had already shredded confidence in the department’s integrity, and the new revelations suggest little has improved since.

The report concludes that the Home Office’s systems remain “confused and conflicting”, warning that institutional inertia has made reform nearly impossible. Mahmood, who took over from Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary in September, said the findings confirm what many already feared.

“This report, written under the last government, is damning,” Mahmood said on Wednesday. “To those who have encountered the Home Office in recent years, the revelations are all too familiar. The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose, and has been set up for failure.”

She accused the former Conservative administration of knowing about the department’s dysfunction but doing nothing to correct it. “As this report shows, the last Conservative government knew this, but failed to do anything about it,” she said.

Mahmood vowed to work closely with the new permanent secretary to restore competence and accountability. “Things are now changing,” she said. “We will transform the Home Office so that it delivers for this country.”

The release of the 2023 report has sent shockwaves through Westminster, exposing a department mired in mismanagement and moral failure. Once considered the cornerstone of British internal affairs, the Home Office now faces a reckoning over its role in unlawful detentions and preventable deaths.

As the fallout deepens, Mahmood’s pledge to rebuild the department is being met with both scepticism and hope. For the thousands affected by its failures, however, the damage may already be done.