Office for Criminal Justice Reform

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Working Together for Justice booklet

 Departments of the CJS

The CJS is one of the major public services in the country, with over 400,000 staff across six agencies:- the Police Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Court Service, The National Offender Management Service (comprising prisons and probation) and the Youth Justice Board.

Within central government, three departments are jointly responsible for the Criminal Justice System and its agencies. They are:

  • The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which is responsible for criminal law and sentencing, for reducing reoffending and for prisons and probation.  The MoJ also encompasses the responsibilities of the former Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), overseaing Magistrates' Courts, the Crown Court, the Appeals Courts and the Legal Services Commission
  • The Home Office, which is responsible for crime and crime reduction, policing, security and counter-terrorism, borders and immigration, passports and identity 
  • The Office of the Attorney General, which oversees the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office.

The government body responsible for co-ordinating the efforts of all these organisations is the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR). OCJR is a cross-departmental organisation, which means that it reports to ministers in all three government departments mentioned above.

It drives forward improvements set out by the National Criminal Justice Board, which is made up of ministers, senior civil servants and heads of service. Locally, 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards co-ordinate activity and share responsibility for delivering criminal justice in their area.

Some services and initiatives within the CJS are run by a number of voluntary groups such as Victim Support and the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (Nacro).

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