Minister of the Interior (; ) is a prominent position in the Government of France. The position is equivalent to the interior minister in other countries, like the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom, the Minister of Public Safety in Canada, or similar to a combination of the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security in the United States. Responsibilities The Minister of the Interior 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 the National Police the National Gendarmerie for its police operations since 2009; as a part of the French Armed Forces, the Gendarmerie is administratively under the purview of the Ministry of Armed Forces General directorate for civil defence and crisis management (Sécurité Civile) the directorate of Firefighters (Sapeurs-Pompiers) the granting of identity documents (passports, identity cards) and driving licenses through the network of prefectures and subprefectures relations between the central government and local governments logistics and organisation of political elections, at the national and prefectoral levels; the results of the elections are overseen by the Constitutional Council or the administrative courts regulation of immigration and preventing illegal immigration integration of legal immigrants (professionally, linguistically, housing) all regional and departmental prefects and subprefects are subordinate to the Minister of the Interior The Minister of the Interior also takes on the role of the former Minister of Worship and is formally consulted in the process of appointment of Catholic diocesan bishops (Briand-Ceretti Agreement). The Minister of Worship used to be a fully-fledged position; the office was abolished in 1912. While the Ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries. Those enquiries are conducted under the supervision of the judiciary. History The Minister for the Maison du Roi under the Ancien Régime is considered to be the precursor of the position of Minister of the Interior, which was officially established on 7 August 1790, during the French Revolution, when François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest became the inaugural officeholder. Although his tasks included the organisation of elections, relations with local authorities, agriculture, as well as trade, the Minister of the Interior's main duty was to oversee the functioning of police forces. This has been the case since then, with the exception of the period from 1796 to 1818, when a Ministry of Police was in use, which was