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• What we do
  • Our responsibilities
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Our responsibilities

Our broad areas of responsibility in alphabetical order. Each area includes contact details, links to related sites, services, publications, reports and speeches.

ABC | DEF | GHI | JKL | MNO | PQR | STU | VWX | YZ

ABC

• Administrative justice and tribunals

• We aim to improve the way in which disputes over administrative decisions affecting individuals and disputes over employment rights are dealt with.

• Burials

• Burial grounds, memorials and the burial and exhumation of human remains are regulated under burial legislation in the interests of public health and the decent and respectful treatment of the dead.

• Care proceedings

• Our aim is to ensure that childcare proceedings are completed as quickly as possible to make the process less upsetting for children and their families. We also want to make sure that court action is only taken if absolutely necessary.

• Civil law reform

• The aim of civil law reform is to create a clear, coherent, cost-effective and accessible system of private law rights and responsibilities.

• Civil procedure rules

• Civil procedure rules govern the practice and procedure to be followed in the civil courts.

• Civil proceedings costs

• Our aim is that the policy on recoverable costs in civil proceedings should provide for costs that are fair, reasonable and transparent.

• Claims management regulation

• Claims management regulation safeguards consumers by improving the operating standards of those providing services relating to claims for compensation.

• Cohabitation

• We are responsible for general government policy on cohabitation.

• Conditional fee agreements

• Conditional fee agreements, also known as 'no win, no fee', are alternative methods of funding litigation.

• Contract transparency

• Government has set out the need for greater transparency across its operations to enable the public to hold public bodies and politicians to account. This includes commitments relating to public expenditure intended to help achieve better value for money.

• Coroners

• We are responsible for the law and policy governing coroners and deal with the operation of the current coroner system.

• Correctional services accreditation

• The Correctional Services Accreditation Panel is a non-statutory body that helps the Ministry of Justice to develop and implement high quality offender programmes.

• Court fees

• Court fees are generally set at levels that reflect, on average, the full cost of the processes involved, with a well-targeted system of fee remissions to protect access to justice for those who are less well off.

• Cremation

• We are responsible for the law and policy on cremation.

• Criminal offences

• We are responsible for policy on the scope and content of criminal offences. Our work supports the departmental objective of securing a fair, efficient and effective criminal justice system.

• Criminal Procedure Rules

• We arrange consultations on proposed new rules and help people working in the criminal justice system to draw to the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee's attention any problems with existing legislation or court procedures.

• Crown dependencies

• The crown dependencies are Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

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DEF

• Data protection

• We are responsible for data protection, both domestically and representing the UK's interests internationally.

• Democratic engagement

• We have led on democratic engagement, and explored how to strengthen relations between government, representatives and citizens, and how to harness new ways of engaging.

• Devolution

• We are responsible for the overall management of relations between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Divorce, dissolution and annulment

• We are responsible for the law on divorce, dissolution of civil partnership, annulment of marriage or civil partnership, and any division of income, capital and assets such as the family home following that separation.

• Domestic violence

• Defined as any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.

• Electoral administration

• We review electoral legislation to improve confidence in, access to and engagement with the electoral system, and maintain the professional delivery of registration procedures and elections.

• Electoral modernisation

• Electoral modernisation means giving people choice in the way they exercise their vote.

• Enforcement

• We aim to ensure compliance with non-custodial orders and judgments of the court.

• EU funding

• We are responsible for helping non-profit organisations – such as NGOs, academics, legal practitioners and other civil society groups – apply for EU funding under its fundamental rights and justice programme.

• Family courts openness

• We are committed to making procedures and the principles behind decisions in the family justice system more open and clear to users, and more open to scrutiny from the wider public.

• Family procedure rules

• Family procedure rules govern the practice and procedure to be followed in family proceedings in the high court, county courts and magistrates' courts.

• Freedom of information policy

• We are responsible for freedom of information policy in the UK.

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GHI

• Gender recognition

• The Gender Recognition Act 2004 enables transsexual people to change their legal gender and gain the rights and responsibilities of their acquired gender.

• Human rights

• The Human Rights Act ensures that your human rights are respected by public authorities, and makes it unlawful for them to act against your rights.

• Integrated offender management

• Integrated offender management is a system that provides all agencies engaged in local criminal justice partnerships with a single coherent structure for the management of repeat offenders.

• International

• We promote the interests of the UK government in the EU, the Council of Europe and other international forums, in matters of criminal, civil and family justice, data protection, human rights and democratic engagement.

• International family law

• International family law policy aims to create a clear, coherent, cost-effective and accessible system of private law rights and responsibilities in relation to cross-border family disputes.

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JKL

• Judicial diversity

• We are committed to ensuring a judiciary of the highest calibre, with candidates drawn from the widest possible range of available talent.

• Judicial pay and pensions

• We fund and administer judges' pay and pensions and set their terms and conditions of service. We also arrange warrants, instruments or letters of appointment for judges once they have been appointed.

• Law of tort and damages, including personal injury

• The law of tort and damages enables people to assert their rights and receive compensation for damage, loss or injury suffered as a result of another's negligence.

• Legal aid

• Legal aid funds the provision of legal advice and representation for people who would otherwise be denied access to justice because they could not afford to pay.

• Legal services reform

• Legal services reform is about putting the customer first in the way legal services are regulated and delivered, providing a framework that promotes competition, and innovation.

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MNO

• Magistrates

• We are responsible for developing policy relating to the recruitment and appointment of volunteer magistrates in England and Wales.

• Marriage and civil partnerships

• We are responsible for the law in England and Wales on what makes a valid marriage.

• Mediation

• The Ministry of Justice is responsible for developing policy on alternative methods of dispute resolution.

• Membership organisations

• Trade unions in England and Wales and other membership organisations can apply to the Lord Chancellor to recover costs of in-house insurance towards protecting members against adverse litigation costs

• Mental capacity

• Mental capacity policy is about empowering and protecting people who may not be able to make decisions for themselves

• Mentally disordered offenders - policy and contact information

• Our aim is to protect the public from the reoffending by mentally disordered offenders. We do this by carefully monitoring restricted patients detained in hospital or discharged into the community.

• Ministerial meetings with outside interest groups

• Tables showing details of justice ministers' meetings with outside interest groups between January and 5 May 2010

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PQR

• Parole

• Some offenders are released from prison before their custodial sentence is due to end. Although the offender is released, they are still serving their sentence with conditions on their liberty.

• Paternity testing

• We are responsible for accrediting bodies that may carry out scientific tests for parentage in accordance with a direction made by a court.

• Penalty notices for disorder

• We are responsible for the policy on penalty notices for disorder.

• Pleural plaques former claimants payments scheme

• This page has the latest information about the scheme that may make payments to those who had begun, but not resolved, legal claims for compensation for pleural plaques before a Law Lords ruling in October 2007.

• Prisons

• Prisons serve the public by keeping in custody those committed by the courts.

• Probation

• Probation is about supervising convicted offenders in the community those subject to a court order and those released on licence from prison.

• Proposal on the provision of court services in HMCS Cumbria and Lancashire
• Protecting the public and reducing reoffending

• The twin aims of NOMS (National Offender Management Service) are to protect the public and reduce reoffending, contributing towards the overall objectives of the Ministry of Justice.

• Relationship breakdown

• We are developing measures to improve information and advice to parents and promote alternative ways to resolve disputes.

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STU

• Sentencing

• If a defendant in a court case is found guilty of a crime, a judge or magistrate will decide on a suitable sentence.

• Single civil and family court

• Today's civil and family courts system comprises different types and levels of court that have evolved over many years.

• Structural reform plan

• The Structural Reform Plan is the key tool of the Coalition Government for making departments accountable for the implementation of the reforms set out in the Coalition Agreement.

• Supreme Court

• The introduction of a Supreme Court for the United Kingdom provides greater clarity in our constitutional arrangements by further separating the judiciary from the legislature.

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VWX

• Victims and witnesses

• The government is committed to putting victims and witnesses at the heart of the criminal justice system. Victims and witnesses are vital in the criminal justice system, without their evidence cases can collapse.

• Women in the criminal justice system

• The Women's Policy Team deals with the government's strategy for women offenders and strengthening cross-government work on meeting the needs of women in the criminal justice system.

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YZ

• Youth justice

• Children and young people who break the law are dealt with quite differently than adult offenders. Those under the age of 18 require different kinds of sentences and support services to help them prevent reoffending.