Introduction
On 19th July, the Government published Cutting Crime - A New Partnership 2008-11, which refocused the priorities on tackling and preventing violent crime, supporting the victim, enabling access to local information on crime, and introducing measures to design out crime and anti-social behaviour. Since 1997, overall crime has fallen by a third, with car crime and burglaries halved, this new strategy emphasises the progress to date in working across partnerships to deliver safer communities whilst producing a road map to build on this success and fight the challenges now posed by society and the increased use of technology.
In addition, on 25th July, Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, announced that a new counter-terrorism strategy would be published in the Autumn, increasing the role of the E-borders programme and electronic screening of passengers, establishing a single security budget and the possibility of longer detention periods for those suspected of being a security risk to the community.
These announcements come at a time of unprecedented change for the criminal justice sector and with change and reform firmly on the agenda, this Conference and Exhibition provides a timely opportunity to examine the key issues of the day, defining the future challenges and showcasing the progress achieved to date.
The Background
On March 29th 2007, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the split of the Home Office into two separate departments as of 9th May 2007. This announcement proceeded the declaration by Dr John Reid, Home Secretary, that the Home Office was “unfit for purpose”. Reid explained that this new ‘split for purpose’ was “refocusing the Home Office towards the priorities of today’s world and the priorities of today’s people”.
This era of change for the criminal justice system spans police reform, the creation of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), the establishment of the Ministry for Justice - which brings together the Department of Constitutional Affairs, the National Offender Management Service, including the Prison and Probation Services – with a new Cabinet Committee on Crime and the Criminal Justice System, chaired by the Prime Minister.
A new office for Security and Counter-terrorism established in the Home Office – with responsibility for the CONTEST strategy – will report through a Ministerial Committee on Security and Terrorism, chaired by the Prime Minister. The Home Office will retain its other existing responsibilities, including policing, anti-social behaviour, drugs, overall crime reduction, immigration, asylum and identity, in addition to its responsibilities for security and counter-terrorism.
The Government also announced plans to build a further 8,000 prison places by 2012, and there will continue to be a shared National Criminal Justice Board and an Office for Criminal Justice Reform, based in the Ministry of Justice, which will work trilaterally between the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office.
The Home Office budget is £13 billion, approximately 3% of Government expenditure, with the police budget at £5.2 billion, prisons £2.4 billion and immigration £1.5 billion. Underpinning the reform programme is the need to provide an efficient, focused service. With a workforce consisting of almost 15% of the civil service, Gershon efficiencies looked to reduce staff posts by 2,700 by 2007 – an overall reduction at head office of 30%.
The challenge posed by the reform programme and Gershon efficiencies were compounded by a year of troubles for the Home Office with the failure of the criminal justice system seldom off the news headlines – from the inadequacy of the immigration service to account for and deport foreign prisoners to the failure of processing information on British citizens who commit crimes abroad. This combined with the threat of terrorism signalled the need for urgent action.