Ministry of Justice
From SR
Contents |
History and Roles
The Ministry of Justice is responsible for policy on the overall criminal, civil, family and administrative justice system, including sentencing policy, as well as the courts, tribunals, legal aid and constitutional reform. The Ministry of Justice helps to bring together management of the criminal justice system from end to end, meaning that once a suspect has been charged their journey through the courts - and if necessary prison and probation - can be managed seamlessly.
The Ministry replaces the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Components
- 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, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons 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, Attorney General's Office
- Her Majesty's Courts Service: administration of the civil, family and criminal courts in England and Wales
- The Tribunals Service: administration of tribunals across the UK 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
- Ministry of Justice corporate centre: focused corporate centre to shape overall strategy
and drive performance and delivery.
Roles
- Lead the government's constitutional, rights and legal reform programmes, which include work on institutional reform, data protection and sharing, electoral modernisation, human rights, devolution and encouraging people to take an active part in the democratic process.
- Give people access to an efficient and effective civil and family justice system and try to help them avoid disputes that end up in court.
- Protecting the public and reducing reoffending is central to the Ministry of Justice's purpose. They are increasing prison capacity and an independent working group will be reporting on better ways to align supply and demand through the sentencing framework. They are committed to offender management reforms and delivering more effective community penalties that reflect the needs of local people. They are also working more collaboratively across government to protect the public and reduce reoffending.
- Lead the new cross-government Justice for All public service agreement to deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public. They are taking a problem-solving approach to improving the criminal justice system which fully reflects the priorities of local communities as well as victims and the public.
Objectives:
- Strengthen democracy, rights and responsibilities
- Deliver fair and simple routes to civil and family justice
- Protect the public and reduce reoffending
- Ensure a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public
