The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, counter-terrorism and police. The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary and five other ministers. Our website is at www.homeoffice.gov.uk but you should also view www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/procurement/doing-business/

Our headquarters contains:

• The office for security and counter-terrorism, which works with other departments and agencies to ensure an effective and coordinated response to the threat of terrorism
• The crime and policing group, which works through the police service and other partners
• A small strategic centre, which advises the Home Office board on strategy and direction as well as the allocation of resources
• Professional services, including legal advice and communications support, as well as programme and project management support.

Three agencies - the UK Border Agency, the Identity and Passport Service and the Criminal Records Bureau - provide directly managed frontline services from within the Home Office.

There are also a number of independent services and public bodies which are supervised by the Home Office.

The Home Office commercial directorate – and how we do business:

The commercial directorate is responsible for achieving value for money on expenditure. Value for money is buying the right goods and services at the right price from the right supplier - and ensuring that contracts are continuously managed.

The Home Office conducts its business in a fair, open and transparent manner. It deals with a multitude of local, national or global organisations - from those with just a few employees to those with many thousands. All suppliers to the Home Office are appointed in line with EU regulations relating to public sector procurement, following fair and open competition.

Recognising the important contribution small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make to the economy, it is government and Home Office policy to encourage this group to bid for Home Office business. If you are a SME then you may be interested in the site at www.businesslink.gov.uk (though it's still in development and does not facilitate procurment).

HOME OFFICE BID ORGANISER (HOBO) is designed to level the playing-field so that SMEs have a demonstrably fair chance of winning bids on merit. Importantly we recognise that, for example, where a business already has a suitable off-the-shelf product this will make their financial stability (and therefore their ability to develop such a product from scratch) virtually irrelevant, then the importance of finances will not be given unnecessary attention. Our weighting system now reflects our ability to capitalise on this reality to the mutual advantage of both parties and the public we serve.