Ministry of the Interior and Administration

The Ministry of the Interior and Administration (Polish: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji) is an administration structure controlling main administration and security branches of the Polish government. After the 2011 Polish parliamentary elections, it was transformed into two ministries: Ministry of Interior (Minister: Jacek Cichocki) and Ministry of Administration and Digitization (Minister: Michał Boni). It was recreated in late 2015.

Ministry of the Interior and Administration

Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji
Ministerial logotype
The seat of the ministry on Stefan Batory Street, Warsaw
Agency overview
Headquarters	ul. Stefana Batorego 5, Warsaw 52°12′40″N 21°01′00″E
Agency executive	Tomasz Siemoniak, Minister of the Interior and Administration
Parent agency	Council of Ministers
Website	gov.pl/mswia

History and function

The ministry was founded in 1918 as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych). It has gone through several reforms, including partial splits and mergers, throughout its history.

Following the abolishing of the Ministry of Public Security in 1954, auxiliary departments, including departmental hospitals, nurseries, and the "Konsumy" retail chain, were transferred from the MBP to the Ministry of Interior, headed by Władysław Wicha. First of all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs took over the competences related to the resident registration and registration of the population, passport matters (which were soon returned to the security service), supervision over the Citizens' Militia, ORMO, KBW, and the Border Protection Force as well as the State Fire Service and the Prison Service.^[1]

On 14 July 1983 The Act "on the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the scope of activities of the bodies subordinate to him" was adopted; the Voivodeship Militsiya Headquarters (Polish: Komenda Wojewódzka MO) were replaced with Voivodeship Offices for Internal Affairs (Polish: Wojewódzki Urząd Spraw Wewnętrznych), and similar steps were taken at the district and regional levels.

During a reform of the Polish government in 1996, the administration branch was merged into the Ministry and it was renamed to its current name (on 24 December).

Powers and responsibilities

Traditionally, it is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions in Poland,^[2]

The ministry is responsible for the following:

• The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes
  • including the major law-enforcement forces (see law enforcement in Poland)
    • the Polish National Police (Policja)
    • the Polish Border Guard (Straż Graniczna)
  • Civil defence
    • the State Fire Brigade (Straż Pożarna)
    • Search and rescue and the oversight of ambulance services
• the granting of identity documents (Polish passports, identity cards) and driving licenses through the network of voivodeships
• relations between the central government and local governments (except in the case of regional development, which is undertaken by the Ministry of Regional Development)
• logistics and organization of political elections, at the national and voivodeship levels (but the results of the elections are overseen by the Supreme Court of Poland)^[3]
• regulation of immigration and preventing illegal immigration
• integration and registration of legal immigrants

While the ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries; criminal enquiries are conducted under the supervision of the judiciary.

The Ministry's headquarters was located on the Stefan Batory Street, south of Warsaw's city centre and the governmental district which surrounds the Belweder. The Ministry could be referred to by its initials 'MSWiA'.

The last Minister of the Interior and Administration before it was split in 2011 was Jerzy Miller.

List of ministers

Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)

Minister			Term of office		Party	Prime minister
Minister of Internal Affairs
		Stanisław Thugutt [4][5][6]	17 November 1918	16 January 1919	PSL "Wyzwolenie"	Jędrzej Moraczewski
		Stanisław Wojciechowski [7][8][9]	16 January 1919	9 June 1920	Independent	Ignacy Paderewski
						Leopold Skulski
		Józef Kuczyński Chief executive [10][11][12]	23 June 1920	24 July 1920	Independent	Władysław Grabski
		Leopold Skulski [10][13][14]	24 July 1920	28 June 1921	National People's Union	Wincenty Witos
		Władysław Raczkiewicz [10][15][16]	28 June 1921	13 September 1921	Independent
		Stanisław Downarowicz [17][18][19]	19 September 1921	5 March 1922	Independent	Antoni Ponikowski
		Antoni Kamieński [20][21][22]	10 March 1922	11 December 1922	Independent
						Artur Śliwiński
						Julian Nowak
		Ludwik Darowski Chief executive [23][24]	11 December 1922	14 December 1922	Independent
		Władysław Sikorski [25][26][27]	16 December 1922	26 May 1923	Independent	Himself
		Władysław Kiernik [25][28][29]	28 May 1923	15 December 1923	PSL "Piast"	Wincenty Witos
		Władysław Sołtan [30][31][32]	19 December 1923	21 March 1924	Independent	Władysław Grabski
		Zygmunt Hübner [33][34][35]	21 March 1924	17 November 1924	Independent
		Cyryl Ratajski [36][37][38]	17 November 1924	14 (15)[39] June 1925	?
		Władysław Raczkiewicz [30][40][41]	14 (20)[42] June 1925	5 May 1926	Independent
						Aleksander Skrzyński
		Stefan Smólski [43][44][45]	10 May 1926	15 May 1926	Polish Christian Democratic Party	Wincenty Witos
		Kazimierz Młodzianowski [46][47][48]	15 May 1926	30 September 1926	Independent	Kazimierz Bartel
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski [49][50][51]	2 October 1926	7 December 1929	Independent	Józef Piłsudski
						Kazimierz Bartel
						Kazimierz Świtalski
		Henryk Józewski [52][53][54][55]	29 December 1929	3 June 1930	Independent	Kazimierz Bartel
						Walery Sławek
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski [56][57][58]	3 June 1930	22 June 1931	Independent
						Józef Piłsudski
						Walery Sławek
						Aleksander Prystor
		Bronisław Pieracki [59][60][61][62]	22 June 1931	15 June 1934[a]	Independent (BBWR)
						Janusz Jędrzejewicz
						Leon Kozłowski
		Leon Kozłowski [64][65][66]	16 June 1934	28 June 1934	Independent (BBWR)
		Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski [67][68][69]	28 June 1934	12 October 1935	Independent (BBWR)
						Walery Sławek
		Władysław Raczkiewicz [70][60][71][72]	13 October 1935	15 May 1936	Independent (BBWR)	Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski
		Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski [70][73][74]	16 May 1936	30 September 1939	Independent	Himself

Communist era (1944–1989)

Minister			Term of office		Party	Prime minister
Minister of Public Security
		Stanisław Radkiewicz [75][b]	21 July 1944	7 December 1954	Polish United Workers' Party	Osóbka-Morawski (PKWN, RTRP, TRJN)
						Cyrankiewicz
						Bierut
						Cyrankiewicz
Minister of Internal Affairs
	No image available	Władysław Wicha [77]	7 December 1954	12 December 1964	Polish United Workers' Party	Cyrankiewicz
		Mieczysław Moczar [78]	12 December 1964	15 July 1968
		Kazimierz Świtała [79]	15 July 1968	13 February 1971
						Jaroszewicz
		Franciszek Szlachcic [80]	13 February 1971	22 December 1971
	No image available	Wiesław Ociepka [81]	22 December 1971	28 February 1973[c]
		Stanisław Kowalczyk [83]	22 March 1973	8 October 1980
						Babiuch
						Pińkowski Acting
						Pińkowski
		Mirosław Milewski [84]	8 October 1980	31 July 1981
						Jaruzelski
		Czesław Kiszczak [85]	31 July 1981	6 July 1990
						Messner
						Rakowski
						Himself
						Mazowiecki

Republic of Poland (after 1989)

Minister			Term of office		Party	Cabinet
Minister of Interior
		Krzysztof Kozłowski [86]	6 July 1990	12 January 1991	Democratic Union	Mazowiecki
	No image available	Henryk Majewski [87]	12 January 1991	23 December 1991	Independent	Bielecki
		Antoni Macierewicz [88][89]	23 December 1991	20 June 1992	Christian National Union	Olszewski
	No image available	Andrzej Milczanowski [90][91][92][93]	11 July 1992	22 December 1995	Independent	Suchocka
						Pawlak
						Oleksy
	No image available	Jerzy Konieczny [94]	29 December 1995	7 February 1996	Independent
	No image available	Zbigniew Siemiątkowski [95][96]	7 February 1996	31 December 1996	Democratic Left Alliance	Cimoszewicz
Minister of Interior and Administration
		Leszek Miller [97]	1 January 1997	31 October 1997	Democratic Left Alliance	Cimoszewicz
	No image available	Janusz Tomaszewski [98][99]	31 October 1997	3 September 1999	Social Movement	Buzek
		Marek Biernacki [100]	7 October 1999	19 October 2001	Social Movement
		Krzysztof Janik [101][102]	19 October 2001	21 January 2004	Democratic Left Alliance	Miller
		Józef Oleksy [102][103]	21 January 2004	21 April 2004	Democratic Left Alliance
		Jerzy Szmajdziński Acting [104][105]	21 April 2004	2 May 2004	Democratic Left Alliance
		Ryszard Kalisz [106][107]	2 May 2004	31 October 2005	Democratic Left Alliance	Belka I
						Belka II
		Ludwik Dorn [108][109][110]	31 October 2005	7 February 2007	Law and Justice	Marcinkiewicz
						Kaczyński
		Janusz Kaczmarek [111][112]	8 February 2007	7 August 2007	Independent
		Władysław Stasiak [113]	8 August 2007	16 November 2007	Independent
		Grzegorz Schetyna [114][115]	16 November 2007	13 October 2009	Civic Platform	Tusk I
		Jerzy Miller [116]	14 October 2009	18 November 2011	Independent
Minister of Interior
		Jacek Cichocki [117][118]	18 November 2011	25 February 2013	Independent	Tusk II
		Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz [119]	25 February 2013	22 September 2014	Independent
		Teresa Piotrowska [120]	22 September 2014	16 November 2015	Civic Platform	Kopacz
Minister of Interior and Administration
		Mariusz Błaszczak [121][122]	16 November 2015	9 January 2018	Law and Justice	Szydło
						Morawiecki I
		Joachim Brudziński [123]	9 January 2018	4 June 2019	Law and Justice
		Elżbieta Witek [124][125]	4 June 2019	9 August 2019	Law and Justice
		Mariusz Kamiński [126][127][128]	9 August 2019[d]	27 November 2023	Law and Justice
						Morawiecki II
		Paweł Szefernaker [129]	27 November 2023	13 December 2023	Law and Justice	Morawiecki III
		Marcin Kierwiński [130]	13 December 2023	13 May 2024	Civic Platform	Tusk III
		Tomasz Siemoniak [131]	13 May 2024	Incumbent	Civic Platform

See also

• Office for the Foreigners' Affairs [pl] is overseen by the Ministry

Notes

1. Assassinated.^[60][63]
2. Between 21 July and 31 December 1944 as a chief of the Ministry of Public Security (kierownik Resortu Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) of the PKWN.^[76]
3. Died aged 51.^[82]
4. Between 9 and 14 August acting minister.^[126] Appointed minister on 14 August^[127] into the First Cabinet of Morawiecki and then again on 15 November^[128] into the Second Cabinet of Morawiecki.