Ministry of the Interior (Spain)

Ministry of the Interior
Ministerio del Interior

The main headquarters
Agency overview
Formed19 March 1812 (1812-03-19) (as Secretariat of the Dispatch of the Governance of the Kingdom)
TypeMinistry
JurisdictionGovernment of Spain
HeadquartersPaseo de la Castellana, 5
Madrid
Employees178,376 (2019)[note 1][1][2]
Annual budget 11.4 billion, 2023[3]
Minister responsible
Agency executives
  • Rafael Pérez Ruiz, Secretary of State for Security
  • Ángel Luis Ortiz González, Secretary-General for Penitentiary Institutions
  • Isabel Goicoechea, Under-Secretary
Child agencies
Websitewww.interior.gob.es

The Ministry of the Interior (MIR) is a department of the Government of Spain responsible for public security, the protection of the constitutional rights, the command of the law enforcement agencies, national security, immigration affairs, prisons, civil defense and road traffic safety. Through the Undersecretariat of the Interior and its superior body, the Directorate-General for Internal Policy, the Ministry is responsible for all actions related to ensuring political pluralism and the proper functioning of electoral processes.[4]

The MIR is headed by the Minister for Home Affairs, who is appointed by the Monarch at request of the Prime Minister. The Minister is assisted by three main officials, the Secretary of State for Security, the Secretary-General for Penitentiary Institutions and the Under-Secretary of the Interior. Among the director generals, the most important are the Director-General of the Police and the Director-General of the Civil Guard.

This department has historically received numerous denominations such as Ministerio de la Gobernación (literally Ministry of the Governance), Ministerio de Orden Público (Ministry of Public Order) and Ministerio del Interior y Justicia (Ministry of the Interior and Justice) when both ministries joint in one.

As of 2020, Spain (central, regional and local governments) spends around 24.6 billion per year on security and public order, which puts it at 2.1 % of GDP.[5]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service (2018). Statistical Bulletin of the personnel at the service of the Public Administrations (PDF). pp. 32 and 48. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ López-Fonseca, Óscar (7 March 2020). "Interior aumenta en 3.800 el número de policías y guardias civiles en dos años". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  3. ^ "2023 State Budget" (PDF). boe.es. 1 January 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  4. ^ "Royal Decree 952/2018, of July 27, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Interior is developed". boe.es. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Government expenditure on public order and safety". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 28 February 2023.

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