Justice ministry idea welcomed

The potential split of the Home Office could have “significant advantages” for the criminal justice system a leading crime reduction campaigner said this week.

Paul Cavadino, chief executive of Nacro, said the reported creation of a ministry of justice, which would include the Home Office’s prisons, probation and criminal justice policy responsibilities, but not cover terrorism, security and asylum and immigration, would allow more focus on cutting crime.

“It would mean that we would have a ministry that could concentrate on reducing crime and having an effective criminal justice system without the constant diversion of immigration and security policy,” he said.

Cavadino added that the proposed split, which would also create a national security ministry to handle the rest of the Home Office’s business, would reduce the risk of criminal justice budgets being raided for other purposes.

But, Emma Ginn, the north-west coordinator of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, said that unless an independent body was set up to deal with asylum claims any split in the Home Office would not improve the asylum system.

Constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer, whose department would be absorbed into any justice ministry, said the “time may well have come” for such a split.

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Home Office split “within months” – from the BBC