Ministry of Justice
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New Ministry of justice "focused on public", says Falconer
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
ENDS
