MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
News Release (049/07) issued by The Government News Network on 9 May 2007
The new Ministry
of Justice, launched today, will focus fully on improving the
justice system for the public, according to the new Secretary of
State for Justice.
Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor and first Secretary of State
for Justice, said the new department - responsible for courts,
prisons, probation and constitutional affairs - exists for one
purpose and one purpose only - to improve the justice system.
Lord Falconer said:
"The Ministry of Justice provides the opportunity for the
whole justice system to work together better than ever before. The
justice system is here to serve the public - and we must give the
public the system it deserves. Justice needs a Ministry of Justice."
He said key themes of the Ministry of Justice would be:
* protecting the public
* reducing re-offending
* sense
in sentencing
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice said:
"The justice system is performing significantly better than
in the past, but there is still considerable room for improvement.
By bringing together courts, prisons and probation services we
will have a coherent system looking at the whole life of an
offender from conviction to punishment to rehabilitation.
"But it's not just offenders. Staff, witnesses and
victims should all feel this is a justice system focused on them
and their needs, with serving the public as the guiding purpose in
all we do."
Lord Falconer said improvements would be measured in number of
ways - fewer offenders re-offending; public confidence the
punishment fits the crime; connection to the communities it
serves; victims feeling the system looks after them; confidence in
the way justice operates; and fair and accessible electoral arrangements.
Lord Falconer added:
"We have a system of justice of which we can be rightly
proud. It is admired around the world.
"The Ministry of Justice builds on this reputation and gives
us a chance to build on what works best. We have no need to
reinvent the wheel. But we need to take an honest look at the
parts of the system where there are problems and fix them."
Notes to Editors
1 The core components of the new Ministry of Justice:
* The National Offender Management Service: Administration of
correctional services in England and Wales through Her
Majesty's Prison Service and the Probation Service, under the
umbrella of the National Offender Management Service;
* Youth justice: and sponsorship of the Youth Justice Board
* Sponsorship of the Parole Board, HM Inspectorates of Prison and
Probation, Independent Monitoring Boards and the Prison and
Probation Ombudsmen,
* Criminal, civil, family and administrative law: Criminal law
and sentencing policy, including sponsorship of the Sentencing
Guidelines Council and the Sentencing Advisory Panel and the Law Commission.
* The Office for Criminal Justice Reform, hosted by the Ministry
of Justice but working trilaterally with the three CJS
departments, the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and Office of
the Attorney General
* The Courts Service: Administration of the civil, family and
criminal courts in England and Wales through Her Majesty's
Courts Service (HMCS).
* The Tribunals Service: Administration of tribunals across the
United Kingdom
* Legal Aid, and the wider Community Legal Service, through the
Legal Services Commission
* Support for the Judiciary: Judicial appointments, via the newly
created Judicial Appointments Commission; the Judicial Office and
Judicial Communications Office.
* The Privy Council Secretariat and Office of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council
* Constitutional affairs: electoral reform and democratic
engagement; civil and human rights; freedom of information;
management of the UK's constitutional arrangements and
relationships including with the devolved administrations and the
Crown dependencies.
* A headquarters focused to shape overall strategy and drive
performance and delivery.
2 The Ministry of Justice in numbers
Total Number of people employed: 77,000
* Prison staff 49,000
* Court staff: 20,000
* HQ staff:
4,000
* Other agencies such as e.g. Tribunal Service and
Public Guardianship Office: approx. 4,000
* Plus funding for
an additional probation staff of: 21,000
Front Line Delivery
* 595 court houses including
* 90 Crown courts
* 360
Magistrates' courts
* 226 County courts.
* 21 central
government tribunals
* 139 prisons
* 42 local probation areas
Workload Volume
* Probation - dealing with 200,000 cases daily, assisting courts
with 246,000 pre-sentence reports and 20,000 bail information
reports each year, supervising more than 8 million hours of unpaid
work in community by offenders each year.
* Prison population of 80,591
* Magistrates courts alone dealt with 2.3 million defendants in
criminal cases and 1.2 million civil applications in 2006. In
2006/07 period Crown courts disposed of 127,751 hearings or trials
and County courts heard 1,975,560 claims.
Resource budget (approximate with financial transfers to be confirmed):
£8.8bn total budget for 2007/8,of which:
* £4.7bn existing NOMS budget
* £2bn existing legal aid
budget
* £1.0bn existing HMCS budget
* £0.3bn existing
Tribunals Service budget
* £0.9bn existing budget for other areas.
Capital budget 2007-08:
* NOMS approximately £500m with an extra 8,000 prison places by
2012.
* Existing investment within previous Department for
Constitutional Affairs of £330m.
3 Further information: http://www.justice.gov.uk
http://www.justice.gov.uk
ENDS