10 October 2007
Alex Allan, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice gives update on the organisational review that was announced in May 2007.
On 9 May, when the Ministry of Justice was created, an internal organisational review was announced that was tasked with recommending the best possible structure and ways of working to deliver improved services for Ministers, our users and the public and joining up the criminal justice system.
The review is ongoing and no decisions have been made. Arriving at the right long-term solutions is inevitably complex, and further work is being done on the options, looking at the benefits, opportunities and advantages each can give and to understand fully any possible risks. This will go forward internally and with relevant stakeholders before we can reach decisions.
One of the stated aims of the review is to support the development of commissioning and end-to-end offender management and they will continue to be the focus that underpins and informs work with offenders. NOMS will remain 'the system through which we commission and provide the highest quality correctional services and interventions in order to protect the public and reduce re-offending'. NOMS is not being abolished as part of this review.
The review is working collaboratively with Lord Carter's review of prisons and both reviews are due to report later this year.
Alex Allan
Permanent Secretary