Corporate report

Annual report and accounts 2022-23: Performance (HTML)

Updated 15 December 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Applies to England and Wales

Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000

Annual Report presented to the House of Commons by Command of His Majesty

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 28 November 2023

ISBN 978-1-5286-4531-7

HC13

© Crown copyright 2023

Performance

Overview

This section sets out the department’s objectives for 2022-23, the challenges to the delivery of our objectives and how we have performed during the year. Our outcomes for 2022-23 build on those included in the 2021-22 Outcome Delivery Plan published in July 2021.

Who we are and what we do

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a major government department responsible for the following parts of the justice system:

• prisons

• probation

• courts and tribunals, which we administer in partnership with the independent judiciary

• a range of services to help victims of crime, children, vulnerable people, and those seeking access to justice

Read more on services delivered on pages 4 to 6

How we operate

MoJ is a ministerial department, supported by 34 executive agencies and other arm’s length bodies.

In 2022-23 we had five executive agencies responsible for the delivery of the majority of our services to the public:

• HM Prison and Probation Service

• HM Courts and Tribunals Service

• Legal Aid Agency

• Office of the Public Guardian

• Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority

We provide services across England and Wales, and certain non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Our objectives

MoJ is responsible for all aspects of justice. In 2022-23 we worked together with purpose, focusing on protecting the public; reducing reoffending; delivering swift access to justice; and reforming the constitution. We have updated our objectives for 2023-24 to reflect the Lord Chancellor’s priorities.

Read more about our strategic outcomes, objectives and performance on pages 19 to 60 (performance overview and our performance analysis).

Executive agencies and arm’s length bodies

MoJ and its agencies deliver prison, probation and youth custody services; administer criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals; and support victims, children, families and vulnerable adults.

Working in partnership with the independent judiciary and our arm’s length bodies, and supported by our corporate functions, we deliver these services, protect the justice system and uphold the rule of law.

Agencies

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) manages around 84,000 prisoners across over 100 prisons and supervises around 240,000 offenders in the community, providing a high level of monitoring and public protection.^{[footnote 1]}The prison service runs public sector prisons and oversees prisons run by private providers. The youth custody service delivers public sector secure provision and oversees secure provision run by the private sector and local authorities for children and young people.

Legal Aid Agency (LAA) works with solicitors, barristers and others to provide simple, timely and reliable access to legal aid for those whose life and liberty is at stake, where they face the loss of their home, in domestic violence cases, or where their children may be taken into care. LAA also provides a high-quality public defender service.

Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) administers compensation schemes for victims of crime who suffer injuries and victims of overseas terrorism.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) administers the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales, and non‑devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It operates more than 300 courts and hearing centres. HMCTS is governed through a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, each of whom has specific responsibilities enshrined in statute.

Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) protects people who may not have the mental capacity to make certain decisions for themselves. It offers services including registering lasting and enduring powers of attorney, supervising court-appointed deputies, and investigating complaints made against deputies and attorneys.

Arm’s length bodies (ALBs) and other bodies

Executive non‑departmental public bodies

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) safeguards and promotes the welfare of children, representing them in family court cases, making sure that children’s voices are heard and decisions are taken in their best interest.

Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements monitors how public bodies in the UK and Gibraltar implement and apply the citizens’ rights part of the EU Withdrawal Agreement and European Economic Area and European Free Trade Association Separation Agreement.

Criminal Cases Review Commission investigates and reviews possible miscarriages of justice in the criminal courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and refers appropriate cases to the appeal courts.

Judicial Appointments Commission selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals in England and Wales, and for some tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Legal Services Board oversees the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales, approving regulatory arrangements and reviewing the performance of frontline regulators.

Parole Board for England and Wales protects the public by risk-assessing prisoners to decide whether they can be safely released.

Youth Justice Board for England and Wales is responsible for overseeing the operation of the youth justice system and the provision of youth justice services.

Advisory non‑departmental public bodies

Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace in England and Wales interview candidates and make recommendations to the Lord Chancellor about who to appoint to their local benches as Justices of the Peace.

Sentencing Council issues guidelines on sentencing and evaluates the impact of guidelines on sentencing practice.

Civil and family justice councils improve the justice system and the public’s understanding of it.

Civil, family, tribunal and criminal procedure rule committees make necessary procedure rules to improve and simplify court procedures for the public.

Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody advises ministers on ways to reduce the number of deaths in custody.

Law Commission undertakes projects at the request of the government to ensure that the law in England and Wales is fair, modern, simple and cost-effective.

Prison Service Pay Review Body advises on pay for governors, prison officers and staff in the England and Wales prison service, and equivalent posts in Northern Ireland.

Office holders

Assessor of Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice gauges the amount of compensation to be paid to applicants under the miscarriages of justice compensation scheme.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons ensures independent inspection of places of detention, reports on conditions and treatment and promotes positive outcomes for those detained and the public.

HM Inspectorate of Probation reports on the effectiveness of work with offenders to reduce reoffending and protect the public.

Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman investigates complaints about the judicial appointments process and the judicial conduct investigation process.

Office for Legal Complaints operates the Legal Ombudsman scheme, an independent and impartial scheme set up to deal with complaints from consumers on the services they receive from regulated legal providers.

Offices of the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee help people who are vulnerable because of lack of mental capacity or young age to access services offered by the justice system.

Office of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales investigates complaints from, and deaths in custody of, prisoners, children in secure training centres/homes, immigration detainees and those subject to probation supervision.

Office of the Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses promotes the interests of victims and witnesses and regularly reviews the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime.

Other

Gov Facility Services Limited provides facility maintenance services to prisons across the south of England.

Judicial Office supports the judiciary, providing advice on judicial statutory functions, legal information, communications and human resources support. It includes the Judicial College, which provides training to the judiciary, and supports the Civil Justice Council and Family Justice Council.

Independent Monitoring Boards of prisons, immigration removal centres and short‑term holding facilities monitor each facility for England and Wales on a regular basis to confirm the treatment received by those detained is fair, just and humane.

2022‑23 in numbers

In this section we outline our performance during 2022-23. Here is a snapshot of the services we provide for the public. Further information on our performance is shown in our performance analysis on pages 27 to 60.

Criminal justice

We handled over 1.3 million criminal cases during 2022-23.

We held over 565,000 sitting days across our courts and tribunals, of which 100,950 were in Crown Court.

239,518 offenders were supported on probation (at 31 March 2023).

43% increase in adult rape cases going to Crown Court in 2022‑23 compared to 2021-22, demonstrating the impact of the Rape Review Action Plan.

4,413 full time equivalent band 4 probation officers in post (at 31 March 2023).

22,288 full time equivalent band 3-5 prison officers in post, including youth justice workers (at 31 March 2023).

The total number of individuals fitted with an electronic monitoring device was 17,350 (at 31 March 2023), an increase of 13% from 15,394 (at 31 March 2022).

Between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023, 5,796 prison leavers, who would otherwise have been homeless, were provided with temporary accommodation through our community accommodation services.

In 2022-23, 13,122 body‑worn video cameras were in operation in public prisons, increasing the availability from 6,000.

Family, civil and administrative justice

95% of users surveyed were satisfied with the online civil money claims application process (Based on an optional online survey of users following completion of a digital application).

87% of users surveyed were satisfied with the online social security and child support appeal process (Based on an optional online survey of users following completion of a digital application).

CICA resolved over 34,700 claims, an increase of 12% on the previous year, with victims of violent crime receiving £173 million in compensation.

OPG registered and dispatched circa 916,000 lasting power of attorneys in 2022-23, compared to circa 721,000 in 2021-22, an increase of 27%.

Legal aid

More than 350,000 applications for legal aid processed, with 100% of criminal legal aid applications processed within two working days and 93% of civil legal aid applications processed within 20 working days except in the most complex of cases.

Over 1.25 million bills processed, 99% of bills were paid within 20 working days, exceeding the 90% target.

We answered 90,900 civil legal aid application calls and 31,356 crime legal aid application calls. 82% of our civil calls and 91% of our crime calls were answered within five minutes against a target of 75%. Customer satisfaction for our call handling stands at 93% for civil calls and 90% for crime calls.

Corporate

£8 billion total comprehensive net spend during the year.

Reduced our total emissions by 28% compared to our baseline year (2017-18), against a target of 41% by 2025.

In 2022-23 there has been an increase in the proportion of ethnic minority staff in MoJ. As at the end of March 2023, of staff who declared their ethnicity, 16% were from ethnic minorities (15% at March 2022). The figure for senior civil servants was 10%.

In 2022-23 there has been an increase in the proportion of declared disabled staff in MoJ. As at the end of March 2023, of staff who declared their disability status, 17% were declared disabled (15% at March 2022). The figure for senior civil servants was 12%.

Parliamentary activity

52 statutory instruments laid.

93% parliamentary questions answered within the parliamentary deadline, against a target of 85% set by Parliament’s Procedure Committee.

Forewords

From the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

It is my pleasure to introduce the Annual Report and Accounts for the Ministry of Justice, outlining its numerous achievements during the 2022-23 financial year.

It was an honour to return to the department as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State in April of this year after previously having served as both Prisons and Probation Minister and Minister for Victims.

The importance of the work the Ministry of Justice does to maintain the principles of an effective justice system – the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the right to a fair trial and swift access to justice – cannot be overstated. These values underpin our success as a nation and ensure that our society is safe, open, free and fair.

Since taking office, I have been outlining my priorities, which are very much an extension of the work the department has been doing throughout the last financial year.

First, it has continued to work to protect the public by increasing prison capacity with decent places that put rehabilitation at their core. This not only means we can give effect to the order of the courts but ensures the prison estate gives every prisoner the opportunity to turn their life around.

Of the 20,000 additional prisons places we promised, we have already delivered more than 5,500 to September 2023, and opened our newest prison, HMP Fosse Way, in late spring of this year.

Second, the department has continued to spearhead the wider government mission to reduce crime. Central to this is our objective to reduce reoffending and we continue to improve education and employment opportunities for prison leavers, which we know are critical to ensuring successful rehabilitation.

It is crucial that we play an unashamed and muscular role in driving down rates of crime and making the argument that every area of government must be a criminal justice department – because each has a role to play, from education to welfare and beyond in making the United Kingdom a safer place to be.

Third, the MoJ has worked with the judiciary, court staff and the legal profession to ensure timely access to justice is available for all those that need it – from the victim of a crime to the fracturing family and the person standing accused of an offence they did not commit.

We removed the limit on Crown Court sitting days to maximise capacity and minimised disruption resulting from industrial action by the Criminal Bar Association and separately by the PCS Union.

The department has also played its part in the government’s mission to operationalise immigration legislation. We are working with the Home Office and other partners to tackle illegal migration and deliver reforms to the justice system in this Parliament. This is vital to give effect to the will of Parliament, which is important for preserving the credibility of the rule of law and ensuring the due process that is the hallmark of a society like ours.

The MoJ has also made progress in tackling violence against women and girls. Rape charges are up significantly compared to the last quarter pre-COVID-19 and we are on track to double the number of cases being referred, charged, and reaching court by the end of this Parliament.

Finally, we continue to boost the role of the justice system and legal services in contributing to UK prosperity, promoting UK legal services exports and improving market access for UK lawyers and law firms, while supporting employment opportunities for hundreds of people in high‑quality, sustainable jobs across England and Wales.

Above all, the department has sought to preserve and enhance public confidence in the justice system, which is essential to the proper functioning of our society.

I want to thank the Permanent Secretary, the Executive Committee, and the Ministry of Justice’s 92,000 staff for their commitment and professionalism in delivering all the work over the last year – of which they should be rightly proud. As we look ahead to next year, my priorities as Lord Chancellor are very much a continuation of those efforts – as we strive to leave the justice system stronger for our having been here.

The Right Honourable Alex Chalk KC MP

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

From the Permanent Secretary

The Ministry of Justice has continued to deliver on its commitment to protect the public, reduce reoffending, and deliver swift access to justice in 2022-23. This is despite a challenging operational and fiscal environment. The dedication and professionalism of all our staff and partners have made the achievements of the last year possible.

Our prison build programme remains the largest since the Victorian era. We have delivered more than 5,500 new build places. In 2022-23 we finalised work on HMP Fosse Way, which opened in Spring 2023. We commenced construction at our newest prison HMP Millsike, new houseblocks at HMPs Stocken, Rye Hill, Hatfield and Sudbury, and major refurbishments at HMPs Liverpool, Birmingham and Norwich. In response to rising demand for prison places, we expanded current capacity in the estate by an extra 2,600 places between September 2022 and September 2023. Operation Safeguard, which enables the coordinated use of police cells to temporarily hold prisoners for short periods, was activated in November 2022, and we established Capacity Gold Command, a strategic command team dedicated to manage and maximise space across the estate.

We have rolled out body-worn video cameras to over 13,000 frontline staff in 106 public prisons and introduced abstinence-based drug recovery wings, as well as doubling the number of Incentivised Substance Free Living units, to support thousands of prisoners.

In the community, more ex-offenders are finding jobs and our Electronic Monitoring Expansion Programme has seen us increase the number of individuals we monitor – 17,350 people were monitored by the end of March 2023 (up 13% from 15,394 in March 2022).

In courts and tribunals, we are now in the latter stages of the HMCTS Reform programme of modernisation. By the end of March 2023, Common Platform was live in 78% of criminal courts and the remaining courts went live in July 2023. We have increased the number of Crown Court sitting days, making the maximum use of available circuit judges and recorders. Challenges remain – the impact of the pandemic and disruptive action by the Criminal Bar Association in 2022 means there is much more to do to tackle the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court. We have increased the number of Crown Court rooms in use, and we have announced a £220m investment to further improve the court and tribunal estate.

We have also implemented changes to Legal Aid in response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, while ensuring that 99% of complete, accurate, eligible bills were paid within 20 working days, against a target of 95%. We have met the ambitions we set out in the 2021 Rape Review, to return volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and going to court to at least 2016 levels, well ahead of schedule.

The Victims and Prisoners Bill was introduced into Parliament in March 2023, seeking to improve victims’ experience of the criminal justice system by making sure they have confidence that the right support is accessible to them and, if they report crime, that they will be treated in the way they should expect. We have completed the rollout of pre‑recorded evidence technology to allow victims and witnesses of crime such as rape and modern slavery to have their cross-examination video-recorded and played later during trial.

MoJ remains a highly purpose-led and motivated organisation. In the 2022 Civil Service People Survey we maintained or increased engagement scores in all themes except pay and benefits. This was a major achievement. Attracting and retaining talented people is a priority. We ran a major campaign to recruit more than 4,500 prison officers and 1,500 trainee probation officers (exceeding our targets), and we have exceeded our 2025 target to increase the number of MoJ roles outside of London.

We are transforming how we manage our data and service delivery by strengthening the MoJ’s data function and the MoJ’s Digital Strategy aims to help people’s experience of interacting with the justice system by creating simpler, faster, and better services. In May 2023 we published the seventh local delivery data dashboard, bringing together data from across the criminal justice system including the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. These dashboards are part of our commitment to increase public transparency and ensure improvements and decisions which affect the criminal justice system are driven by good-quality data. We have also introduced Justice in Numbers webpages, making justice data accessible to the public.

We have continued to promote transparency that maintains trust and confidence in our work. In July 2022 a judge’s sentencing remarks were broadcast for the first time, in December 2022 the first public parole hearing in UK history took place, and our digital court and tribunals services have been used 2.1 million times so far, making services easier to use and more efficient to run.

There have also been changes to the Department’s Executive Committee. In May 2022, Richard Price joined the MoJ as Director General – Performance, Strategy, and Analysis. In September 2022, we moved to a new top-level structure in HMPPS, with a Director General Chief Executive Officer (Amy Rees) and Director General Operations (Phil Copple). In April 2023, I announced the appointment of Ross Gribbin as Director General Policy – Prisons, Offenders, and International Justice, with Jerome Glass moving to a new role (Director General – Courts and Access to Justice). In June 2023, the Second Permanent Secretary Jo Farrar left the MoJ to be the Chief Executive for NHS Blood and Transplant. Jo was Chief Executive of HMPPS during an extremely challenging time given the pandemic and as Second Permanent Secretary she led important work to transform our service delivery and digital innovation. The Executive team and I have been well supported by the department’s Non‑Executive Directors – thank you to them for their advice and challenge throughout the year.

The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP and the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP were Lord Chancellors and Secretaries of State during the reporting period. Since April 2023 the Rt Hon Alex Chalk MP has been the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State. Our delivery is thanks to the commitment and efforts of the 92,000 people working for the MoJ to uphold the principles of free, fair and open justice. It is a privilege to lead them, and I look forward to working with the Lord Chancellor and the Ministerial team on their priorities for the justice system in the coming year.

Antonia Romeo

Permanent Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer

From the Lead Non‑Executive Board Member

2022-23 has been a challenging year for the Ministry of Justice. From the standpoint of the Lead Non-Executive, the two big “stay awake” issues were prison capacity and the court caseload. There were also the implications of the rising cost of living and inflation which presented additional pressures for the department. There were also changes of the Lord Chancellor, starting and finishing the reporting year with Dominic Raab, with a brief period of Brandon Lewis at the helm. Since the reporting year end, Dominic Raab has been succeeded by Alex Chalk. Notwithstanding these changes, the Executive have been diligent and resilient in addressing the challenges the department faced.

Turning first to prison capacity, the department has continued its strategy to secure delivery of 20,000 additional prison places, with around 5,500 delivered to September 2023. The newest prison, HMP Fosse Way, started accepting prisoners in late spring and provides 1,700 places. Construction is well underway at HMP Millsike, due to open in 2025, and which will be the UK’s first all electric powered prison. This year also saw significant growth in demand across the adult male estate and underlined ongoing challenges with prison capacity. The department has shown considerable flexibility and agility in providing short-term solutions. However, current forecasts suggest increases in demand for prison places, which will need to be addressed in the medium term.

The department continues its drive to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Probation Service following unification of this provision in the previous year. Realising the full potential of probation unification remains a key driver in how we protect the public and reduce reoffending. HMPPS is confident that they are on the right trajectory to improve performances post-unification. The department is undertaking significant recruitment with 1,514 trainee probation officers recruited during the financial year under consideration. In parallel, greater consideration has been given to improve staff retention and reduce attrition rates. Progress will continue to be monitored to ensure results are on the right track.

In the Annual Report and Accounts last year, I summarised the multifaceted approach that the department was taking to increase the volume and speed of cases going through the courts system. Ensuring timely access to justice remains a key priority for the department. The increase in the number of sitting days for judges has been a critical factor and has demonstrated a positive impact on the outstanding caseload. HMCTS continues to work closely with the police, CPS and the judiciary to ensure that all viable levers are tested and implemented. The delivery of the HMCTS Reform Programme remains integral. The pandemic highlighted risks of unforeseen challenges and showed the importance of how modernised systems support effective delivery of the justice system. The Reform Programme is also critical in supporting the drive to reduce the volume of cases. The industrial action both by the Criminal Bar Association and the PCS caused significant disruption, and we worked closely with criminal justice partners to minimise this wherever possible.

Looking now at governance, the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) assists the Departmental Board by assuring that there are effective arrangements in place for governance, risk management and internal control. Paul Smith, our non-executive chair of ARAC, has continued to strengthen this assurance across the MoJ and its bodies through strong relationships with the agency and ALB ARAC chairs. The ARAC chairs of HMPPS and HMCTS now sit as members on the departmental ARAC ensuring greater connection between the department and its largest delivery agencies. Paul has continued to champion the Union agenda and the sustainability agenda. With the valuable addition of Mark Beaton, the non‑executives have provided constructive challenge and scrutiny of the delivery plans for some of the department’s major projects through the Delivery Board. Mark’s wealth of business experience has been a great asset to the organisation in helping to drive reassessment of some programmes to ensure realistic delivery ambitions, taking account of the current affordability challenges.

The Departmental Board met four times during the reporting year and the in-depth reviews included discussion on recruitment and retention, HMCTS Reform Programme (including the Common Platform) and prisoner employment. As commissioned by the then Secretary of State, I undertook the annual Board Effectiveness Review. Overall, the board was found to be functioning well but there were some areas for improvement. Taking account of the feedback, the planned addition of new non-executive members will help address the areas where skills gaps were identified and work will continue to build on providing greater oversight of the department’s arm’s length bodies. Greater focus by the board in future on the strategic and operational issues affecting performance, with a view to the long-term health and success of the department are planned.

As non-executives, we are grateful to successive Lord Chancellors and the Executive, under the leadership of the Permanent Secretary and the Executive Committee, for their willingness to involve us in areas where our experience can contribute and for their openness to our constructive challenge. On behalf of the non-executives, we look forward to working with the new Lord Chancellor and the ministerial team to deliver the department’s priorities.

Mark Rawlinson

Non‑Executive Board Member

Chief Operating Officer’s review of the year

Introduction

This was another year of strong performance across the department, set against the context of an unprecedented operating environment. This performance is built on strong financial planning and stewardship which has ensured that we maintain a firm grasp on our finances and effectively manage our resources within the limits voted by Parliament.

The department’s resource DEL (RDEL) budget, as voted by Parliament in the Supplementary Estimate, was £10,246 million, capital DEL (CDEL) was £1,458 million, resource AME was £633 million and capital AME was £23 million.

The department’s costs are funded, in part, by income. This income comes from a number of sources including fees, fines, contributions from clients who received legal aid funding and income from prison industries. Total income in 2022-23 was £1,711 million, compared to £1,636 million in 2021-22, an increase of 5%. As a proportion of our gross resource budget, income made up 16% in 2022-23 compared to 15% in 2021-22.

Figure 1: Performance against Parliamentary control totals

Supplementary Estimate £m	Outturn £m	Variance £m
Resource DEL	10,246	10,100	146
Of which
Administration	548	481	67
Capital DEL	1,458	1,360	98
Resource AME*	633	102	531
Capital AME*	23	6	17
Net cash	11,011	10,616	395

*AME consumption is inherently volatile and dependent on a number of factors outside the control of the department, resulting in the variance between outturn and estimate.

Resource

The department created financial flexibility to respond to a number of pressures across the year, including disruptive action by the criminal bar and a backdrop of increasing inflationary pressure on core services.

Our staff remain our most valuable asset, and we continued to invest in our workforce across the year. We have strengthened recruitment and retention efforts across the department, delivering against stretching recruitment targets in prisons, probation and the judiciary.

In 2022-23 we increased our investment in reducing reoffending activity to £70 million. Activities included expanding our transitional accommodation service, completing our roll out of Employment Advisory Boards, and opening the first six drug recovery wings, which will allow prisoners to address their addictions through abstinence-based treatment. Outcomes included an 8.6 percentage point increase in the proportion of prison leavers employed six months post release.

We continue to invest in the reform of justice services. During 2022-23 HMCTS completed the Financial Remedy, Civil Damages and Social Security and Child Support projects and the Future Operations programme.

Capital

We continue to invest in our prison estate to support the delivery of further capacity and are committed to delivering 20,000 additional modern prison places through the largest prison build programme since the Victorian era. By the end of Spending Review 2021, we will have invested nearly £4 billion to support the rising demand for prison places.

As with other construction programmes, prison expansion plans have been affected by high levels of inflation and market-led price increases over the last year, which have had a material impact on actual and estimated costs.

It was not possible to execute our full capital spending plan due to planning permission delays and pressure on suppliers, resulting in an underspend against budget of £98 million, 7% of the capital DEL budget.

In courts and tribunals, our investment in the estate was prioritised in making sure that our buildings are safe secure, meet statutory requirements and protect continuity of service.

We also invested in improving our technology and have made progress delivering critical digital infrastructure through initiatives such as the Prison Technology Transformation Programme. The replacement of aged digital infrastructure and the modernisation of our digital estate will allow improved access and increase efficiency across our prisons and probation services.

Future plans

Inflation continues to run ahead of the assumptions that underpinned the department’s SR21 settlement. Departments have been asked to absorb those financial pressures from within their existing budgets.

This will be the challenging context that underpins our financial position for the remainder of this Parliament and beyond. We are working closely across the department, and with our partners across the justice system to prioritise resource, improve productivity and focus resources on activity that will have the biggest impact on our outcomes.

Figure 2: Departmental expenditure

Our performance

Our outcomes for 2022-23 build on those included in the 2021-22 Outcome Delivery Plan which was published in July 2021.^{[footnote 2]},^{[footnote 3]} As such our priority outcomes were to:

• protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons

• reduce reoffending

• deliver swift access to justice

The department also focused on work to progress the government’s commitments on human rights.

Our performance is measured through analysis of performance data which is captured throughout the year. This analysis enables us to understand the broader impact of the department with a view to deliver improvement. All our performance information is published on GOV.UK

Performance overview

The performance overview provides a high-level summary of organisational performance against our priority outcomes. Our Performance Analysis, which is set out on pages 27 to 60, provides full details of our activities and analysis of performance against each outcome.

Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons

We protect the public by holding prisoners securely, robustly supervising and managing offenders in the community, and strengthening our capability to mitigate terrorist threats. Throughout 2022-23 we prioritised public protection in the criminal justice system by:

• preparing for the opening of HMP Fosse Way and progressing construction at HMP Millsike in Yorkshire, which will deliver over 3,000 places between them

• surpassing our targets for recruitment of trainee probation officers, hiring 1,514 against a target of 1,500, and recruiting 4,314 band 3-5 prison officers (which includes prison officers and specialists, supervising officers and custodial managers)^{[footnote 4]}

• tackling terrorism in prisons by launching a counter terrorism training package and improving our use of Separation Centres

• rolling out our Electronic Monitoring Expansion Programme

Reduce reoffending

We are working to divert people away from crime by tackling the main drivers of re‑offending, including through:

• improving the proportion of prison leavers in settled accommodation three months post release from 75.3% to 75.6%

• focusing on helping prisoners into employment on release, including through the recruitment of dedicated Employment Leads in all resettlement prisons to support prisoners in accessing job vacancies, writing CVs and applying for jobs. In 2022-23, 25.9% of prison leavers were employed six months post release, up from 17.3% in 2021-22

• opening six drug recovery wings, allowing prisoners to address their addictions through abstinence-based treatment

• publishing the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan on 31 January 2023, which outlines cross government commitments to improve outcomes for women and reduce women’s offending over the next three years. This was supported with an investment of over £15 million in women’s community services

• delivering the Turnaround programme, an additional investment for youth services targeted at early intervention, which has provided 153 youth justice services with multi-year funding

Deliver swift access to justice

Justice is a vital public service, relied on directly by victims, families and businesses. It underpins the operation of society and the economy in our country. Throughout 2022-23 we have delivered by:

• increasing the number of Crown Court sitting days and improving the efficiency of courtroom use

• completing the rollout of pre-recorded evidence technology which allows vulnerable victims and witnesses to have their cross-examination video recorded and played later during trial. We introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill and made progress implementing the Rape Review Action Plan as part of our work to tackle violence against women and girls^{[footnote 5]},^{[footnote 6]}

• publishing our response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review and established the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board to facilitate improved dialogue between government and the legal professions

• we published our response to the consultation on the Means Test Review, which when fully implemented will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million, with 3.5 million more people eligible for criminal legal aid in the magistrates’ court

Constitutional reform

The government’s commitment to reform human rights remained an objective in 2022-23. In June 2023 the Lord Chancellor confirmed that the government would not proceed with the Bill of Rights, but that it remains committed to a human rights framework that is up to date, fit for purpose, and works for the British people. In 2023-24 we have updated our objectives to reflect the Lord Chancellor’s priorities.

Strategic enablers

Our corporate functions supported delivery of our priority outcomes by:

• running a major campaign recruiting 4,314 prison officers and 1,514 trainee probation officers to meet projected demand, helping to protect the public^{[footnote 7]}

• supporting the government’s Levelling Up agenda by opening another 24 Justice Collaboration Centres and Justice Satellite Offices to recruit into, taking our total up to 29 at March 2023, and exceeding our target of 24

• promoting innovation and better use of technology to improve the department’s efficiency and effectiveness

• rolling out of new mailroom services in prisons to provide confidence in legitimacy of legally privileged mail; and to support detection of illicit items

• rolling out in-cell technology to a further five prisons, improving access to education, rehabilitation programmes designed to reduce reoffending, and allowing prisoners to manage their own affairs – such as diet, medication and training

• delivering our Evaluation and Prototyping Strategy, testing and assessing the impact and cost-effectiveness of our programmes and interventions so that our decisions are based on robust evidence

Principal risk summary

Principal risk area	Outcome/enabler	Trend this year	Comment on trend	External factors
Operational delivery: Ensuring effective service delivery in our operations	1,2,3	Increase	We have delivered additional prison places during the year. However, since September 2022 we have seen an acute rise in the prison population, driven by higher flows into the sentenced, recall and remand populations, the impact of the criminal bar disruptive action, and the aftermath of the pandemic. The CBA action has contributed to driving up outstanding caseloads in the criminal courts. To manage this and other high caseloads we have increased sitting days and continue to recruit judicial resource.	Criminal Bar Association disruptive action; CJS demand; OGD pay and labour; market factors

Capacity: Managing and maintaining sufficient system capacity to meet an uncertain demand into our frontline services	1,2,3	Increase	We have seen significant growth in the total prison population. We continue to increase prison capacity through the delivery of 20,000 new places, and have taken additional steps to ensure we are using the existing estate at its maximum capacity. In the courts we continue to maximise productivity, keep open the 24 temporary Nightingale courtrooms, and extend plans for judicial recruitment to secure enough capacity to sit at the required levels to reduce the open caseload. Ageing property infrastructure continues to impact physical capacity across the operations of HMCTS and HMPPS.	Planning permission for new capacity; Criminal Bar Association disruptive action; police officer recruitment; the pandemic
People and capability: Recruiting and retaining sufficient capable individuals to ensure continually effective service delivery	1,2,3,4,5,6	No change	Recruitment targets for prison and probation officers have been met or increased, against the backdrop of a challenging labour market. Retention rates are beginning to improve following a concerted set of activities including improved levels of support and training.	OGD pay and labour market factors concerns in the early part of the year; cost of living and potential for strike action in latter part of the year
Digital: Reducing the level of technical debt and improving resilience and flexibility of digital and technology services to the business. Improving innovation and productivity	1,3,5,6	No change	We launched our 2025 Digital Strategy with positive feedback from the business. However, our ability to reduce technical debt remains a challenge. We have created a dashboard for our most critical systems to reflect the risks and plans to address them. People resource and capability continues to be an issue, both to maintain old systems and develop new innovative systems to support business improvements.	Competitive labour markets; rapid development of new technologies; developments in artificial intelligence
Security and information: Reducing the likelihood of a cyber security attack, together with keeping our information secure and enabling better information practice. Improving compliance with GDPR and other legislation	1,3,5	No change	There has been a heightening of risk from internal and external threats of exposure to loss of personal or sensitive information and data. The scale and complexity of MoJ coupled with large volumes of sensitive information remains a challenging factor in reducing risks. We have worked hard to improve our information security culture through policy and guidance. We continue to focus on supplier assurance given the reliance MoJ has on outsourced services.	Geopolitical tensions; economic climate particularly cost of living increases

Commercial: Ensuring we can put in place and manage effective contracts which support the delivery of justice services	1,2,3,5,6	No change	Supply chain risks and issues have continued across multiple industries. We monitor our critical suppliers and have ensured contingency plans are in place. This has enabled services to continue uninterrupted. MoJ is one of the most heavily outsourced government departments and as such has an extensive pipeline of new or recurring contracts to oversee which has stretched our resources but remains manageable.	Market cost pressures coupled with exchange rate fluctuations; supply chain concerns due to geopolitical tension; service delivery gaps due to lack of staff and strikes
Change: We have an ambitious portfolio of change projects with a range of risks that require active management to ensure delivery	1,2,3,4,6,7,8	No change	We continue to ensure that our major projects and programmes are set up for success, supported by robust oversight, constructive challenge processes and a core team of project delivery professionals, who provide expertise across the portfolio. We have continued to manage the risks in our change portfolio throughout the year.	Planning permission; inflationary pressures on construction materials; market cost pressures
Evidence and insight: Ensuring decisions taken by ministers and others are underpinned by sufficiently accurate evidence	1,2,3,5,6	No change	In line with our revised target operating model a new senior staffing model has been put in place. This aligns with the increasing demand for analytical support from across MoJ, seeking modelling and data science capability. We continue to improve data pipelines so that data can be extracted from source in ways that are quicker and more auditable with fewer errors. We have invested in new capacity and capability to meet the increasing demands for evidence and insight to support decisions.	Reliance on OGD delivery partners to join up CJS data

Property: Failure to maintain an estate that is compliant, operational, environmentally sensitive and efficient

1,2,3,6,8

Increase

We continue to invest in the maintenance of our buildings to maintain capacity and reduce dilapidations, while also undertaking planned maintenance programmes. Condition surveys have taken place throughout 2022-23, including for fire and asbestos to ensure future plans can be appropriately prioritised to align with the wider strategy.

Inflationary pressures on construction materials and supply shortages; service delivery gaps due to lack of staff and strikes

Climate change and sustainability: Failure to adapt effectively to physical and transitional climate change exposures

1,2,3,6,8

NEW

We have progressed a detailed action plan to embed climate change and sustainability within the organisation. We are improving our understanding of how climate change will adversely impact our estate from rising temperatures and flooding, and what is needed to adapt our estate. We continue to revise plans to adjust to new government commitments.

Extreme weather; high energy prices

Finance: Long-term funding uncertainty and inflationary pressures on current budgets leading to difficult prioritisation decisions and disrupted operational delivery, inefficiency and reputational damage

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

NEW

Short term financial risks were minimised by a positive outcome of our efficiency and savings review with HMT. Continued management will require all additional expenditure decisions to be counter balanced with savings. Long term plans are being developed in line with the next spending review.

Wider macro-economic environment in particular, inflationary pressures and consequent pay settlements

Stakeholder: Failure to effectively engage OGDs and our stakeholders impacts on delivery, trust and reputation

1,2,3,4

NEW

Currently trending at a stable but medium-high level. Relationships have been impacted by an accelerated delivery approach which has created some challenges in effectively engaging and addressing concerns of stakeholders in a timely manner. We aim to bring this down over the next year through having a more consistent and planned approach.

Legislative agenda for other government departments and macro-economic environment

Key to outcomes and strategic enablers

Outcomes	Enablers
1: Protect the public from serious offenders	5: Workforce, skills, location
2: Reduce reoffending	6: Innovation, technology, data
3: Deliver swift access to justice	7: Delivery, evaluation, collaboration
4: Constitution	8: Sustainability

Our performance analysis

Priority outcome 1: Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons

Our core focus is to ensure our services continue to protect the public, working towards our 10‑year vision as set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, published in December 2021.

Prison capacity

Since Autumn 2022, the adult male prison estate has seen an increase in demand. This has been driven by higher flows into the sentenced, recall and remand populations, the impact of the criminal bar disruptive action, and the aftermath of the pandemic. In response to this increase in demand, we have implemented a suite of contingency measures, including making full use of all existing capacity, increasing cell occupancy where safe to do so and delaying non‑essential maintenance. Through this action, we have expanded current capacity in the estate by an extra 2,600 places between September 2022 and September 2023.

By the end of the Spending Review 2021 period, we will have invested nearly £4 billion to modernise and increase the capacity in our prisons, continuing to make progress towards the delivery of 20,000 additional, modern prison places, ensuring the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, cut crime, and protect the public. These places are being delivered through the construction of six new prisons, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate and temporary accommodation. The new HMP Fosse Way opened in June 2023 and construction is well underway at HMP Millsike in Yorkshire, delivering more than 3,000 places between them. This new prison is due to open in 2025 and will be the UK’s first all-electric prison.

As at September 2023, we have already delivered around 5,500 additional prison places through a combination of refurbishments, installing around 700 temporary accommodation places, and opening the new prison, HMP Five Wells. Construction has started on new houseblocks at HMPs Rye Hill and Stocken and Cat D expansions at HMPs Hatfield and Sudbury which will deliver 850 additional places between them.

In addition, Operation Safeguard, which enables the co-ordinated use of police cells to temporarily hold prisoners for short periods, was activated in November 2022, with the first spaces coming into operation in February 2023. This contingency measure provides additional resilience in the system where capacity pressures are most acute.

Prison capacity pressures have restricted our ability to take places out of use for refurbishment and compliance works. We have prioritised our investment in the Fire Safety Improvement Programme and across 2022-23 we have brought many prison places in line with modern safety standards, creating a safer environment for our staff and prisoners.

Probation

Following the successful unification of probation services in June 2021 there have been increasing pressures with our probation caseload, which grew from around 225,000 cases in June 2020, to around 240,000 cases by March 2023 (an increase of 6.7%). To address this we have:

• recruited unprecedented numbers of trainee probation officers in recent years, exceeding recruitment targets of 1,000 in 2020-21 and 1,500 in each of 2021-22 and 2022-23. Recruitment has remained an area of focus throughout 2022‑23, particularly in hard to recruit locations, and has been affected by the volatility of the labour market and cost of living pressures

• improved the volume of applications received and reduced time to hire in regions where the need for particular operational roles was most important

• taken action to reduce the leaving rate for probation officers. In the 12 months to 31 March 2023, the leaving rate for probation officers was 7.5%, with 358 leavers. This is a decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to the prior year, which had 367 leavers

Security

Crime in prisons undermines safety and security by putting prisoners and staff at significant risk. We have continued to improve security by:

• completing implementation of the Security Investment Programme with the successful installation of X-ray baggage scanner technology to support searching in 45 prisons^{[footnote 8]}

• delivering a counter drone strategy to address the growing challenge posed by illicit use of drones^{[footnote 9]}

• deploying an additional 60 drug detection machines to prevent drugs entering the system through the post, bringing the total to 95 devices

• rolling out upgraded phone blocking capability to prevent prisoner access to illicit communications

Counter terrorism in prisons

We combat terrorism in prisons via the Joint Counter Terrorism in Prisons and Probation Hub, which works in partnership with Counter Terrorism Police and MI5 to increase intelligence gathering and identify terrorist threats. We are also:

• implementing the recommendations from Jonathan Hall KC’s review into terrorism in prisons, including the introduction of the crime in prisons referral agreement and the introduction of specialist probation teams to manage convicted terrorists^{[footnote 10]}

• improving our use of separation centres to hold those who present the most serious threat, as part of a new Separation Centre Policy Framework launched in November 2022

• committing to launch a new counter terrorism training package in October 2023, building on the existing Step-Up programme to empower staff to identify threats and risks to prison safety and security

Parole reform

In March 2022, we set out a landmark package of reforms to the Parole Board designed to restore public confidence in the system:

• in December 2022 the first public parole hearing in UK history took place^{[footnote 11]}

• in March 2023 we introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which will make reforms to the Parole Board intended to improve public protection and confidence

Safety

We are committed to ensuring that prisons are safe and secure places to live, work and support rehabilitation. Although rates of assaults remain lower than in 2019, we have taken action over the last year to address rises in rates of assaults and self-harm, including:

• working with our Women’s Self-Harm Taskforce to tackle increased rates of self-harm in the female estate, which increased by 51% in 2022‑23 compared to a 5% decrease in the male estate. So far, we have introduced a number of measures, including rolling out the Support Through Enhanced Management programme to support women with complex needs, and piloting access to psychologists when women first enter custody, when the risks of self-harm are greater

• rolling out body-worn video cameras to staff in 106 public prisons, with more than 13,000 cameras now operational, enough for every band 3-5 operational staff member on duty at any one time. These cameras help to keep prisons safer, providing valuable evidence and supporting fairness and trust through transparency

Electronic monitoring

Our Electronic Monitoring Expansion Programme has helped us to increase the number of individuals we monitor, with 17,350 people tagged by the end of March 2023: an increase of 13% from 15,394 at the end of March 2022. We have extended the use of electronic monitoring with the use of location monitoring tags for new offender cohorts, as well as the continued rollout of alcohol monitoring tags for offenders subject to Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirements.

Our performance metrics

Key to metrics

Useable prison places.

Prisons capacity – useable prison places.

The number of useable prison places increased by 3,751 between 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023. Prison capacity continues to be put under pressure by increasing demand. The increase in places can be attributed to the ramp up of HMP Five Wells; the return of a number of places out for operational purposes; and a net decrease in the total number of places out for maintenance.

Prisoner-on-prisoner assault.

Rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners.

The rate of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults increased by 14% in the 12 months to March 2023. The rate started to rise since the reopening of prison regimes following the end of restrictions during the pandemic, but assaults remain below pre-pandemic levels. The above data does not include the Youth Secure Estate.

Prisoner-on-staff assault.

Rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners.

The rate of assaults on staff in the latest 12 months was 5% lower than in the previous 12 months. The data above does not include the Youth Secure Estate.

Self-harm incidents.

Annual rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners.

The overall rate of self-harm incidents per 1,000 prisoners increased by 7% in the 12 months to March 2023. There continue to be considerable differences in self-harm trends by gender. The rate in female establishments has increased by 51% (5,826 per 1,000 prisoners), whereas it has decreased by 5% in male establishments (523 per 1,000 prisoners), meaning the rate is now over 11 times higher in female establishments. We are taking action to address the increase in self-harm in the female estate through the work of the women’s self-harm taskforce and a range of interventions. The data above does not include the Youth Secure Estate.

Random mandatory drug tests.

Percentage of random mandatory drug tests for illicit substances with positive results.

In 2019-20, 14% of random mandatory drugs tests (rMDT) for illicit substances were positive. There is no published data from 2020‑21 onwards, as all rMDT testing was paused in March 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there has been a slow increase in testing over time, testing is yet to return to the levels required for reliable national or establishment-level estimates.

Robust test reporting also requires a testing panel which captures the range of drugs in circulation; as the testing panel was not updated in 2022-23 the test results for the last 12 months are likely to be inaccurate as there may be new drugs in circulation that are not being tested for.

Serious further offences.

Percentage of those in the overall probation caseload that result in a serious offence conviction.

Serious further offences are rare. Consistently, fewer than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are convicted of serious further offences. Available published data currently covers a period up until 31 March 2021.

There is a lag in conviction data due to allow time for cases to complete the criminal justice process. Following a lag, the information is added to the published data. However, figures for some years may be provisional as some cases may not yet have concluded.

Published SFO data is available at: Proven reoffending statistics: October to December 2021

Priority outcome 2: Reduce reoffending

Reducing reoffending is central to the government’s commitment to cut crime.

Building on the successes of 2021-22, we have worked to support individuals in custody with their accommodation, education, and employment needs. We have done this by:

• expanding our transitional accommodation service (CAS3), initially available in five probation regions, into Wales in June 2022. This provides prison leavers who would otherwise be homeless with temporary accommodation for up to 12 weeks. Between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023, 5,796 prison leavers who would have otherwise been homeless were accepted into CAS3 accommodation

• completing our rollout of Employment Advisory Boards in 92 prisons, linking prisons with business networks and ensuring that prisoners have the skills and training employers need to meet labour market demands. We also met our commitment to recruit dedicated Prison Employment Leads and ID and Banking Administrators in 92 prisons. In the year to March 2023, 25.9% of prison leavers were employed six months post release, up from 17.3% in the previous year

• introducing a Head of Education, Skills and Work role into 17 accelerator prisons, with recruitment for the national rollout well under way, with all successful candidates expected to be in post by January 2024

• we have also recruited 63 Neurodiversity Support Leads to identify and support neurodivergent prisoners in accessing education and work opportunities within prison, with a further 60 to be recruited in 2023-24

Support and treatment for prisoners struggling with substance misuse is central to breaking the cycle of reoffending. With the £120 million funding announced in the 2021 Drugs Strategy ‘From harm to hope’ we began delivering on interventions, including:

• recruiting 18 Drug Strategy Leads in prisons to engage with stakeholders in prisons and community and to support prisoners to continue the work they have done in prison to beat addiction on release

• opening six drug recovery wings, which will allow prisoners to address their addictions through abstinence-based treatment

• doubling the number of Incentivised Substance Free Living units to 50, helping prisoners to address their dependence on drugs through regular drug testing and support

• introducing Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators with over 40 staff already in post helping to build connections between substance misuse and mental health services in the community to ensure continuity of care for all prison leavers

We have focused on improving outcomes for children and young people in custody and the community by:

• preparing to launch the Secure School Project in early 2024 through refurbishment of the previous Secure Training Centre in Medway. Co-commissioned between the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and NHSE, the Secure School is established both as a secure 16 to 19 academy and as a Secure Children’s Home, to provide an integrated approach to health and education for 49 children

• awarding and mobilising new education contracts for the four publicly operated Young Offender Institutions in England. These will deliver a broad and balanced curriculum which meets the needs of all learners through traditional face-to-face classroom-based teaching as well as digitally enabled in-room learning

• providing funding to 153 youth justice services across England and Wales via the early intervention Turnaround programme. It is anticipated that this funding will support up to 17,500 children over three years, with the aim of preventing them from going on to offend

• delivering the Youth Justice Sport Fund across England and Wales between November 2022 and March 2023. The £5 million programme supported 220 voluntary and community sector organisations to work with 10-to-17-year-olds considered vulnerable to involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour, using sport as a vehicle to address problem behaviour

We have improved outcomes for adults on probation by:

• phasing in enhanced probation services in 11 probation regions. Probation practitioners will work with individuals who have 10 months or less of their prison sentence left to serve, identifying immediate resettlement needs and pre-release planning requirements, enabling a more timely offer of support

• continuing to clear a backlog of unpaid work requirements that had built up as a consequence of COVID-19 restrictions. Delivery is now back to pre-COVID-19 levels with a plan to remove the backlog by 2025

Our performance metrics

Prison leavers in employment.

Percentage of prisoners in work six months after their release.

In 2022-23, 25.9% of prison leavers were employed six months post release. This is up from 17.3% in the previous year - an 8.6 percentage point increase. Every region within England and Wales saw a rise in the proportion of prison leavers employed six months post release in 2022-23, in comparison to 2021-22. 2020-21 is the earliest year for which we have data of sufficient quality.

Post-custody accommodation.

Percentage of prisoners in settled accommodation three months after release.

In 2022-23, 75.6% of prison leavers were in settled accommodation three months post release (excluding cases where the status was unknown). This is up slightly from 75.3% in the previous year. 2020-21 is the earliest year for which we have data of sufficient quality to report.

Post-custody treatment.

Percentage of adults with a need for treatment for substance misuse who successfully engage in community-based structured treatment within three weeks of release from prison.

The proportion of adults released from prison and successfully starting community treatment decreased compared to the previous year (37.4% in 2021-22 and 38.1% in 2020-21) but is still 7.1 percentage points higher than when this data was first reported in 2015-16 (30.3%).

Priority outcome 3: Deliver swift access to justice

Our focus this year has been on recovering courts and tribunals, providing support to victims, increasing eligibility criteria for Civil and Criminal Legal Aid and delivering the latter stages of the HMCTS reform programme. We have made progress in recovering our services from the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the public commitment to reducing the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court to 53,000 cases by March 2025. We did this by:

• increasing the number of Crown Court sitting days, making the maximum use of available circuit judges and recorders. We also increased available judicial capacity by increasing sittings in the Crown Court of High Court judges, appropriately authorised District Judges (magistrates’ courts) and judges sitting in retirement

• increasing the number of Crown Court rooms in use and available to hear cases, including continuing Nightingale hearing rooms across 11 venues through to the end of March 2024

• increasing magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months for a single offence in May 2022. This meant that more cases could be dealt with by the magistrates’ courts while the Crown Court could focus their resources on getting through more serious, complex cases. This increase was paused in March 2023 in order to ease downstream pressures in the criminal justice system

• minimising disruption from action by the Criminal Bar Association and separately by the PCS Union by working closely with local partners and stakeholders and making sure judges had the information they needed to best prioritise open cases. The Criminal Bar Association disruptive action was resolved in October 2022 following the extension of fee rises which led to subsequent increases in Crown Court disposals.^{[footnote 12]},^{[footnote 13]}Since the end of the reporting period an increase in the number of cases coming into the Crown Court each month means that the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court has begun to increase, up by 7% from March 2023 to the end of September 2023

Court reform

We introduced our ambitious court reform programme in 2016, aiming to modernise the justice system to make courts and tribunals more efficient and accessible to all users.^{[footnote 14]} This includes digitisation of core services and migrating or decommissioning legacy IT systems. This means judges and magistrates have more time to hear cases by cutting down on unnecessary paperwork and reserving court and tribunal time to hear the most complex cases.

We made good progress delivering modernised services during 2022-23, including completing the financial remedy, civil damages and social security and child support projects and the Future Operations Programme. We also started to roll out our new Video Hearings Service, improving the functionality and security of remote hearings.

The reform programme is a complex portfolio with diverse stakeholders and dependencies and there have been challenges around implementing changes while courts were working at full capacity to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This particularly impacted the implementation of Common Platform, the new digital case management system in the criminal courts. We have listened to feedback from users and temporarily paused rolling it out further to ease some immediate pressures and make the rollout smoother.^{[footnote 15]} By the end of March 2023, Common Platform was live in 78% of criminal courts and the remaining courts went live by end July 2023.

We extended the completion of the reform programme by three months to March 2024 – with an additional year to March 2025 for the final two releases and implementation of the Common Platform.

We are conducting an overarching evaluation of the reform programme, looking at its implementation and whether it has achieved its intended aims. A final report will be published following the end of the programme, once reforms have had time to bed in and sufficient volumes of cases have completed using reformed systems and processes.

Victims

We have demonstrated our ongoing commitment to put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system by:

• introducing the Victims and Prisoners Bill into Parliament on 29 March 2023 seeking to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system.^{[footnote 16]} The Bill introduces measures to help victims have confidence that the right support is accessible and that, if they report crime, the criminal justice system will treat them in the way they should truly expect

• continuing to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence and Independent Domestic Violence advisers to 1,000 by 2024‑25 to ensure victims receive tailored, trauma-informed support

• quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024-25, from £41 million in 2009-10

• completing the rollout of pre-recorded evidence technology in September 2022 (available to vulnerable children and adults since November 2020), allowing victims and witnesses of crimes such as rape and modern slavery to have their cross-examination video recorded and played later during trial

Rape Review Action Plan

We have continued to make significant progress on delivering the milestones of the Rape Review Action Plan,^{[footnote 17]} including the introduction of the landmark Victims and Prisoners Bill; the national rollout of Operation Soteria, a new operating model for the investigation and prosecution of rape that focuses on the suspects rather than the victims in rape and serious sexual offence cases; and the launch of our 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, delivered by Rape Crisis England and Wales, in December 2022.^{[footnote 18]} As a result of these actions, we have exceeded our ambitions to return to 2016 levels for each of these volumetrics. In the latest quarter of data (to 31 March 2023) we have seen:

• 1,341 police referrals to CPS for advice, early advice, or charge for adult rape cases, exceeding the 2016 ambition of 766

• 567 CPS charges for adult rape, exceeding the 2016 ambition of 538

• 605 Crown Court receipts for adult rape cases, exceeding the 2016 ambition of 553

The amount of time it takes for adult rape cases to pass through the system remains challenging, as are the levels of victim attrition. This is why we are extending activity against all eight levers of the Rape Review Action Plan to December 2024, beyond its original completion date of June 2023.

Transparency of the criminal justice system

In May 2023 we published the seventh local delivery data dashboard, bringing together data from across the criminal justice system including the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. These dashboards are part of our commitment to increase public transparency and ensure improvements and decisions which affect the criminal justice system are driven by good quality data.

To allow the public a greater understanding of how judges make decisions on sentences, a judge’s sentencing remarks were broadcast for the first time in July 2022.

Judicial recruitment

We worked closely with HMCTS, the judiciary and Judicial Appointments Commission to recruit more judges, launching the recruitment for nearly 1,000 judicial posts in 2022-23. A virtual region was established to provide flexibility for designated judges, allowing cases in a number of jurisdictions to be heard virtually from any geographical region.

To better support our judiciary, MoJ introduced the Judicial Pension Scheme (JPS) in April 2022, providing a generous and attractive benefits package.^{[footnote 19]}

Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR)

In November 2022, we published our substantive response to CLAIR which followed our interim response which was published in July 2022.^{[footnote 20]} Taken together, they set out ambitious reforms that put us on the road to a better functioning, more efficient and improved criminal justice system.

We initially responded by uplifting most criminal legal aid fee schemes by 15%, including the scheme which remunerates barristers. This amounted to an injection of up to £115 million – the biggest uplift the sector has seen in over a decade.

We will be providing a further £21 million of funding for criminal defence solicitors, to ensure that they are fairly paid for all the vital work they do. This includes an extra £16 million for police station work – meaning funding for this will be 30% higher than it was before the CLAIR reforms – and £5 million specifically for work in the youth court, so that children continue to get the best possible legal representation.

In addition, for barristers we set aside £4 million for cases involving pre-recorded cross-examination of vulnerable victims and witnesses, and £3.3 million of funding for special and wasted preparation.

This brings our total funding package to over £141 million extra for the legal aid sector each year taking projected annual spend on criminal legal aid to £1.2 billion.^{[footnote 21]}

We have also established the independently chaired Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, to facilitate discussion between the government and the legal professions, and will be reforming the structure of fee schemes to ensure they properly reflect the way legal professionals work today.

Legislation

We worked with the Home Office to prepare for implementation of reforms under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and supported the introduction and passage of the Home Office led Illegal Migration Bill.^{[footnote 22]},^{[footnote 23]} We started developing plans for introducing these wide reaching reforms which will improve efficiency and throughput of appeals within the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.

In April 2022, we implemented the new no fault divorce measures in the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act.^{[footnote 24]} The change removes unnecessary conflict to ease stress on couples and children and forms wider action to improve the family justice system.

Our performance metrics

Crown Court disposals.

Number of cases disposed of in Crown Court.

Over the first half of the financial year, there was an increase in the level of the outstanding caseload due in part to the impact of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) action. Following the end of the CBA action in October 2022, disposal levels returned to those seen pre-pandemic, achieved by maximising judicial and court capacity. While disposals are lower than the previous financial year, there were in total just under 92,000 disposals, and the open caseload rose 7% from 57,923 to 62,212.

Magistrates’ courts disposals.

Number of cases disposed of in magistrates’ courts.

Following the end of disruptive action, disposal levels have returned closer to, but still below, pre‑pandemic levels. In total, there were over 1.2 million criminal disposals in the magistrates’ courts.

Family court disposals (private law).

Number of cases disposed of in private law family courts.

Family court disposals (public law).

Number of cases disposed of in public law family courts.

Private law disposals were 1% higher than the previous year with over 44,100 disposals made in 2022-23 and the open caseload decreased by 5% during 2022-23. Public law disposals were 1% higher than the previous year with over 15,300 disposals made in 2022-23 and the open caseload increased by 4% during 2022-23.^{[footnote 25]}Virtual Regions were piloted/established in July 2022 to provide flexibility for judicial resources located throughout England and Wales to hear family cases by remote hearings. We also recruited additional legal advisers to hear more family cases and continue to explore ways to reduce demand.

Employment tribunal disposals ( single claims ).

Number of cases disposed of in employment tribunals.

In December 2022, we received additional funding to sit 2,000 extra days in the jurisdiction, which contributed to an increase in disposals at the end of 2022-23. At the end of March 2023, the open caseload was 4% lower than the previous year. Employment tribunals transitioned to a new database (Employment Case Management) during March to May 2021. We are not able to provide results for the migration period and therefore data for 2021-22 has not been included to avoid a misleading comparison. Metrics are not currently available to provide a like-for-like comparison with data from the old database, so results from June 2021 onwards should not be compared to results prior to March 2021.

Victims’ Code.

Proportion of victims who had heard of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime.

Data has not been available since the year ending March 2020 as the question behind this metric was removed from the Crime Survey for England and Wales during the pandemic due to the shortening of the survey questionnaire. The data to March 2023 is yet to become available.

Constitutional reform

Bill of Rights

In June 2023 the Lord Chancellor confirmed that the government would not proceed with the Bill of Rights, but that the government remains committed to a human rights framework that is up to date, fit for purpose and works for the British people. In 2023-24 we have updated our objectives to reflect the Lord Chancellor’s priorities.

The government has taken and is taking action to address specific issues with the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights, including through the Illegal Migration Bill, the Victims and Prisoners Bill and the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021.

Strategic enablers

Our corporate functions provide the specialist expertise that every organisation requires for strong performance. Our people are vital to everything we do as a department and effective financial management is essential to meet the expectations of parliament and deliver accountability to the general public. Our openness to new ideas and digital change has helped us deliver better public services.

Workforce, skills, location

We continue to work to ensure we have a strong, high skilled and appropriately resourced workforce across the country. Action taken includes:

• exceeding our ambitious targets to recruit 4,500 prison officers and 1,500 probation officers, while just narrowly missing our target of 2,000 Operational Support Grades in controllable attrition rates decreasing by 0.4 percentage points from 2021-22 (11.0%) to 2022-23 (10.6%)

• supporting the government’s Levelling Up agenda by opening another 24 Justice Collaboration Centres and Justice Satellite Offices to recruit into, taking our total up to 29 at March 2023, and exceeding our target of 24. We have shown strong progress increasing roles outside of London, exceeding our 2025 target of 1,205 roles

• delivering a portfolio of more than 30 programmes, initiatives, schemes and events that have reached an audience of almost 20,000 staff across MoJ – organised by Leadership, Talent and Capability. These included Grow Your Leadership sessions, matching participants from underrepresented backgrounds with Senior Civil Service (SCS) sponsors through our Luminate scheme and exceeding our target of 5% of staff being on apprenticeships, with this reaching 7% in January 2023

Innovation, technology, data

In 2022 we launched MoJ’s Digital Strategy, to transform people’s experience of interacting with the justice system by creating simpler, faster and better services. We are doing this by:

• creating more user-centred services – for example the ‘Prepare a case for sentencing’ service was rolled out to over 150 magistrates’ courts, helping to save approximately 50% of staff time. The ‘Send Legal Mail’ service is now live in all prisons in England and Wales, simplifying the process of sending legal mail to prisons and helping to reduce the amount of contraband being smuggled in through the legal mail route

• creating greater flexibility in MoJ by improving connectivity in over 100 approved premises and increasing network capacity at more than 90 prison sites, as well as reducing dependency on physical legacy servers and moving more services to the cloud

• improving analytical capability with the MoJ Analytical Platform, leading to more data-driven decision-making. With tools such as MoJ Forms and digitising processes in prisons and courts we have reduced our use of paper

Elsewhere we have undertaken work to strengthen the data function within MoJ through our data improvement programme. We have created and filled the role of Chief Data Officer to give senior ownership of data across the organisation and to champion the work of our data team and the value of data.

We have also taken tangible steps to better use our data to drive positive outcomes. We continued to develop our open-source data linkage software, Splink, with Version 3 launched in July 2022. This has helped to de-duplicate and link data, reducing workload and improving data quality.

We delivered greater transparency to our citizens this year through the introduction of our Justice in Numbers (JiN) web pages.^{[footnote 26]} JiN brings together headline statistics from across our publications in one place, together with latest trends and time series. By making it live and updating it as and when new statistics are published, JiN is the single source of truth for justice data.

Sustainability

We are committed to embedding sustainability principles into everything we do. We have taken tangible steps including:

• ensuring that HMP Millsike, our next new prison due to open in 2025, will be net zero ready, achieving at least 10% biodiversity net gain and designed to achieve a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) Excellent rating

• introducing reuse schemes and recycling workshops within prisons, including TV repair workshops at HMP Guys Marsh and The Verne, and a phone repair workshop at HMP Risley. It is estimated that this activity saves MoJ over £2 million each year, in addition to reducing waste and developing new ‘green’ skills for prisoners

• developing plans to replace our least efficient boilers

• installing circa 650 electric vehicle charging points across the estate

• undertaking an estate-wide climate change risk assessment and developing an initial ‘adaptation pathway’ for prison services

• developing a net zero strategy, climate adaptation strategy, water efficiency strategy, nature recovery plan and carbon reduction programme through 2022-23

Delivery, evaluation and collaboration

In MoJ we are working to embed a culture of innovation and collaboration which allows the department to enhance its delivery of public services through insightful evaluation. We are doing this through:

• publishing our Evaluation and Prototyping Strategy in April 2023, which outlines twelve actions to help the department improve outcomes and deliver value for the taxpayer

• taking significant steps to further embed functional standards and continuously improve the maturity of our functional delivery model. We have collaborated across all our functions to agree and implement an approach to continuous improvement in both adherence to standards and the quality of functional delivery. Our approach has attracted significant interest beyond the department and has been recognised as best practice^{[footnote 27]}

• delivering over 400 projects totalling approximately £340 million across the MoJ estate. These included a new workshop at HMP Highdown which won three Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards in 2023; a video conferencing centre at HMP Birmingham, allowing prisoners to attend court hearings from prison via video link, resulting in circa 900 fewer people to process in and out of prison; and the full redesign of Royalty House in Watford to create a new eight-court hearings facility and back office^{[footnote 28]}

Our performance metrics

People survey engagement score.

Average engagement score (%).

The engagement score has been maintained at around 60%.

Representation of female staff.

Percentage of staff who are female.

Representation of female staff in MoJ has steadily increased from 53.6% to 57.9% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. There are strategic actions to improve gender equality by attracting and retaining talent across our workforce. Representation is monitored and the actions overseen by the MoJ Gender Equality Forum.

Representation of ethnic minority staff.

Percentage of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Representation of ethnic minority staff in MoJ has steadily increased from 13.3% to 15.8% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. There is a strategic programme of work across MoJ to improve the attraction, retention and development of ethnic minority staff.

Representation of disabled staff.

Percentage of staff who are declared disabled.

Representation of disabled staff in MoJ has increased from 12.8% to 17% between 2018‑19 and 2022‑23.There is a strategic programme of work led by a disability action group to improve the attraction, retention and development of staff with a disability or long term health condition.

Greenhouse gas emissions – annual CO2 emissions.

Percentage vs baseline year.

Currently our emissions have reduced by 28% compared to our baseline year (2017-18), against a target of 41% by 2025. This has been achieved through a combination of grid decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures taken across our estate.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

We share responsibility with other government departments for supporting delivery of the UK’s commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).^{[footnote 29]} The table describes MoJ’s contributions.

SDG	MoJ’s priority outcomes (contributing to SDG)	MoJ activity in 2022-23
SDG 3 – Good health and wellbeing. Target: 3.5 – Substance abuse	Reduce reoffending – substance misuse	In July 2022, we announced plans to invest £120 million to support more offenders into drug treatment, by increasing use of Drug Rehabilitation Requirements as part of community sentences and increasing the proportion of prison leavers who need drug treatment that engage with it post-release.[footnote 30] This has included recruitment of dedicated Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators nationwide and rolling out specific wings in prisons for prisoners committed to living drug-free.
SDG 4 – Quality education. Targets: 4.4 – Youth and Adult Skills. 4.6 – Literacy and numeracy. 4a – Education facilities	Reduce reoffending – education	The government committed in its manifesto, to deliver a transformed Prisoner Education Service. We have made progress against our published Prisons Strategy White Paper commitment to deliver the Prisoner Education Service, with new expert support roles being rolled out across the estate, funding awarded to specialist literacy providers, and we have changed the law to allow prisoners to begin apprenticeships.[footnote 31],[footnote 32]
SDG 5 – Gender equality. Targets: 5.1 – Discrimination against women and girls. 5.2 – Violence against women and girls. 5c – Gender equality policies	Reduce reoffending – tackling female reoffending. Deliver swift access to justice – domestic abuse	We published a Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan for 2022-25 in January 2023, setting out a range of commitments to improve outcomes for women in the criminal justice system.[footnote 33] This was supported with an investment of over £15 million in women’s community services. During 2022-23, the vast majority of the MoJ measures in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 were brought into force including new offences for non-fatal strangulation and suffocation as well as making domestic abuse complainants eligible for special measures in the criminal, family and civil courts.[footnote 34] In July 2022, the Home Office also published statutory guidance to support the understanding of the definitions of ‘domestic abuse’ and ‘personally connected’ as set out in the Act. Work is in train to pilot the remaining measure from the Act (Domestic Abuse Protection Notices/Orders) from 2024. In February 2023 we worked with the Home Office to announce an intention to amend legislation so that offenders convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour (sentenced to a year or more) will automatically be managed by the police, prison and probation services under multi-agency public protection arrangements. Work will start immediately to ensure that those offenders are recorded on the dangerous persons database (ViSOR).
SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth. Targets: 8.3 – Job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and SMEs. 8.5 – Full and productive employment. 8.6 – Youth not in employment, education or training. 8.8 – Labour rights and safe working environments	Reduce reoffending – employment opportunities and access to work – resettlement support. Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons	New Futures Network, the specialist employment team in HMPPS, continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers and has overseen the delivery of major Prisons Strategy White Paper commitments.[footnote 35] We launched the Employability Innovation Fund, to enable prisons to work with more employers and training providers to deliver sector specific skills training. We have delivered quarterly sector recruitment drives for hospitality, construction and manufacturing sectors, which invite employers into prisons to meet potential candidates and offer employment support. We are developing a digital candidate matching system to match prisoners to roles on release and will launch a new, digital jobs board that prisoners will use to search for and apply for vacancies within Hubs. We are continuing to develop the design of Resettlement Passports and are now working with five prisons and three probation regions to trial a prototype, with over 2,000 already created. This brings together all of the essentials that prison leavers need to lead crime-free lives on release into one place, such as ID and bank account information, details of education, skills and work qualifications, and details of post-release appointments. In parallel, development of the digital resettlement passport is underway. We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to test approaches for prisoners preparing to make their Universal Credit claim. The tests are live in 15 prisons, with nearly 500 prison leavers supported to make a Universal Credit claim at the point of release, providing a foundation to seek and secure work.
SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities. Target: 10.2 – Empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all	Reduce reoffending	In November 2022 we published our annual Gender Pay Gap report setting out updates and actions for 2023 in three areas: talent, flexible and family friendly, and inclusive culture.[footnote 36] We are committed to tackling racial disparities in the criminal justice system. As a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum, MoJ is working collectively with members to implement its action plan to support greater diversity in the judiciary, as well as ensuring the large recruitment campaign for magistrates is representative. This was published in April 2023 on the progress of the Inclusive Britain Strategy, our response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report.[footnote 37]
SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production. Targets: 12.6 – Companies adopting sustainable practices. 12.8 – Understanding sustainable development and lifestyles	Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons – building sustainable prisons	MoJ and its agencies continue to reduce our consumption, emissions and wastes. See ARA pages 52 to 60 for further detail. Construction has commenced on the first of our four new all electric, net zero ready prisons, HMP Millsike, opening 2025. The design achieved an ‘outstanding’ certificate at the Design and Procurement stage.[footnote 38] The prison will run solely on electricity with solar panels and heat pump technology meaning it will generate around 90% less operational carbon than an equivalent existing prison.
SDG 13 – Climate action. Target: 13.2 – Integrate climate change measures into national policies	Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons	We introduced a principal risk on operational resilience to climate change and developed a pathway for reducing climate change risks to prison services. Detailed flood risk assessments have been completed for priority sites and these are informing our climate adaptation strategy refresh and emerging climate adaptation action plan.
SDG 16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions. Targets: 16a – Prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime through international co-operation. 16.1 – Violence and related death rates. 16.4 – Illicit financial and arms flows, stolen assets and organised crime. 16.6 – Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. 16.7 – Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.	Reduce reoffending. Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons. Deliver swift access to justice	We have made good progress in implementing the Prisons Strategy White Paper – progress is covered above in relation to specific goals linked to reducing reoffending and protecting the public.[footnote 39] We have continued to increase representation from underrepresented groups in the judiciary including the proportion of female and ethnic minority judges. With nearly 500 more women judges and 150 more ethnic minority judges in 2022 compared to 2018, the proportion of women judges has increased from 35% to 41% and the proportion of judges from ethnic minorities has increased from 8% to 10%.[footnote 40]

Climate change and sustainability

As the second largest government estate, our vision is to lead the way in greening government, embed sustainability in everything we do and use our environmental policies, projects and programmes to deliver justice outcomes, while also supporting delivery of government’s climate and environmental objectives.

Strategy, policy, governance, risk and assurance of climate change and sustainability activity across MoJ is co-ordinated by MoJ’s Climate Change and Sustainability Unit (CCSU) and performance is overseen by a Senior Sustainability Board.

Sustainability is a strategic enabler in our Outcome Delivery Plan, supporting the department’s strategic outcomes. Areas of a focus include tackling climate change, using resources sustainability, protecting and enhancing the environment, embedding sustainability across the organisation and maximising opportunities to deliver justice outcomes that also support delivery of government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.

Scope and data quality

This report is prepared in accordance with HM Treasury’s Sustainability Reporting Guidance 2022-23.

MoJ reports on all its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, subject to any exemptions in accordance with the reporting guidance. MoJ is unable to report data from locations where property owners are not obliged to provide it. Some data will be estimated.

We have recently reviewed our Greening Government Commitments data to better reflect changes in our estate. As such, our baseline year and 2021-22 non-financial indicators have been restated to reflect these changes and to show the full financial year up to March 2022. Our sustainability performance data is audited by DNV-GL on behalf of DEFRA.

Greening Government Commitments (GGC) 2021 to 2025

MoJ is tracking its progress against the GGC targets for the period 2021 to 2025 on a quarterly basis. The data below shows our present position for 2022-23 against a 2017-18 baseline, using data available to December 2022.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The work of the department primarily supports delivery of four UN SDGs: SDGs 5, 10, 13 and 16, relating to climate change, equality, peaceful and inclusive societies, and access to justice.

Embedding sustainability

MoJ’s CCSU provides subject matter expertise to all MoJ functions. Sustainability Action Plans have been agreed with executive agencies and functions to identify actions to drive improvements across our estate. These action plans are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect progress, and to highlight new opportunities for improving our environmental performance. ALBs are also engaged on greening government through MoJ’s ALB Centre of Excellence.

Overall GGC performance 2022-23 (against the updated 2017-18 baseline)

Requirement by 2025	2022-23 performance	RAG status	Commentary
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41%	-28%	Not on track	Decarbonisation of the electricity grid is helping towards this target; but expansion of the estate will make achieving this target challenging. The MoJ’s Net Zero Strategy is being updated to include more recent data and a commitment to Scope 3 emissions.
Reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions by 23%	-5%	Not on track	Technology and financial constraints have limited progress. Heat decarbonisation plans completed for various prison and probation sites. Funding obtained to progress decarbonisation work at HMP Risley and Eastwood Park.
Reduce emissions from domestic business flights by 30%	-75%	On track
Reduce overall waste by 15%	-15%	On track	Pilot recycling and refurbishment schemes are underway to improve waste management practices.
Landfill waste to be less than 5%	7%	Not on track	Recent work with one of our waste contractors has significantly reduced the quantity of waste to landfill and this will manifest itself over the coming years.
Increase recycling to at least 70%|	57%	Not on track	Pilot recycling workshops within prison waste management units will help to improve this position.
Reduce paper use by 50%	-44%	Not on track	Many processes are still paper based. MoJ is increasingly switching to digital systems which will help reduce paper use, including the trial of in-cell technology.
Reduce water consumption by at least 8%	+4%	Not on track	Reducing water use in ageing infrastructure is difficult, particularly in prisons which run 24/7. Some significant water leaks occurred during the winter. Smart meter installation continues, helping to find and fix water leaks.

Greenhouse gases

The table below shows our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and financial costs for 2022-23.

GHG emissions from buildings and travel		2017-18 Baseline [footnote 41]	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22 restated [footnote 41]	2022-23
Non-financial) indicators (tCO2e )[footnote 42]	Total gross scope 1 (direct) GHG emissions	187,668	185,407	182,242	170,888	184,533	177,855
	Total gross scope 2 (energy indirect) emissions	165,702	126,714	111,393	92,097	90,193	87,085
	Total gross scope 3 (official business travel) emissions	28,659	22,938	21,496	11,491	9,123	8,905
	Total emissions	382,029	335,059	315,131	274,476	283,849	273,845
Non-financial indicators (MWh)	Electricity	470,835	447,642	435,812	395,044	424,779	392,748
	Electricity: renewable on site [footnote 43]	28	Data not available	Data not available	Data not available	463	723
	Gas	914,496	876,973	837,642	816,750	881,873	761,692
	Other energy sources	37,804	43,114	47,143	42,689	47,500	62,984
	Total energy	1,423,163	1,367,729	1,320.597	1,254,483	1,354,615	1,218,147
Financial indicators (£m)	Energy	92	92	111	97	103	148
	Carbon reduction scheme	7	6	6	0	0	0
	Official business travel	24	28	29	5	10	26
	Total: energy and business travel	123	126	146	102	113	174

MoJ has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 28% since 2017-18 and has introduced a range of energy and carbon saving measures including installing:

• over 100 boiler control units saving 460tCO2 and nearly 20,000 LEDs saving 484tCO2

• 50kW solar PV array at HMP Stirling House generating 1,333MWh of energy and saving £225,723 over its lifespan

• one new PV array at a court building

• 42 electric vehicle charging points across the estate, bringing the total number of electric vehicles charging points to 650 across MoJ

• building management systems at HMP Elmley resulting in estimated 1,397MWh/year energy and £100,000/year in financial savings

• connection of Leeds Combined, and Leeds Magistrates’ Courts, to a low carbon heat network, with support from capital grant funding

MoJ’s Net Zero strategy is being refreshed. We have secured £20 million capital grant funding to replace coal boilers and oil boilers, with heat pumps at HMP Risley and Eastwood Park respectively over the next two years and further funding to complete heat decarbonisation plans at nine prison and probation sites.

MoJ achieved the target of 25% of cars converted to ultra low emission vehicles in line with the GGC target. This was achieved 12 months ahead of the target date of December 2022. MoJ’s fleet currently comprises 42% ultra low emission vehicles and 1.7% zero emission vehicles.

Electric vehicle charge points case study – HMP Belmarsh

MoJ has installed six dual electric vehicle charge points (EVCP) and procured six plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and an electric minibus at HMP Belmarsh as part of our national EVCP programme to progress towards our net zero targets. The EVCP programme supported delivery of 25% ultra low emissions vehicles target by December 2022, and helps enable the 100% zero emission vehicle target by December 2027.

Climate change adaptation

MoJ’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is being updated to reflect the 2022 climate change risk assessment of our estate and operations. A climate change adaptation plan will be developed throughout 2023-24. MoJ is improving the evidence base on both flood and overheating risk across our estate and a Flood Resilience Framework is being developed to support the Climate Adaptation Strategy.

Travel

Flight related emissions have remained low since the pandemic restrictions.

We are reviewing our travel policies to make more-sustainable travel options preferable to air and single-occupancy vehicle travel.

Air travel	2017‑18[footnote 44]	2018‑19	2019‑20	2020‑21	2021‑22 restated[footnote 44]	2022-23
Domestic flights (km)[footnote 45]	1,905,878	1,838,087	1,499,117	64,326	255,017	521,783
Domestic flights emissions (tCO2e)	270	290	202	8	33	68
International business flights (km)[footnote 46]	3,387,593	3,609,624	4,739,114	3,382,713	3,669,534	4,131,216
Short haul Econ	1,255,551	n/a	n/a	n/a	1,868,392	1,167,586
Short haul Business Class	58,527	n/a	n/a	n/a	6,643	24,933
Long haul Econ	1,252,533	n/a	n/a	n/a	876,294	1,294,499
Long haul Premium Econ	329,097	n/a	n/a	n/a	507,834	663,919
Long haul Business	491,885	n/a	n/a	n/a	410,371	980,279
International business flights (tCO2e)	372	375	463	311	383	504

Water

MoJ’s reported water consumption has increased by almost 4% compared to the 2017-18 baseline. This is due to ageing infrastructure, historic underinvestment and prison expansion. The worsening trend compared to 2021-22 is due to improved data quality and granularity, and ongoing prison expansion.

We continue to install smart meters to improve measurement of our water consumption; in excess of 160 were installed during the year. Data from smart meters has enabled identification and repair of leaks more quickly.

MoJ’s Water Efficiency Strategy has been drafted and is intended for publication in due course subject to approval.

Water		2017‑18[footnote 47]	2018‑19	2019‑20	2020‑21	2021‑22 restated[footnote 47]	2022-23
Non‑financial indicators	Total water consumption (m3 000)	9,527	8,917	8,940	9,137	9,402	9,896
Financial indicators	Total water supply costs (£’m)	26	27	29	24	23	28

Water leak repair case study – HMP Guys Marsh

In October 2022, an underground water leak was identified at HMP Guys Marsh.

The water meter reading at the site was showing signs of heavy constant water flow, which indicated a substantial water leak. A multi-team effort accurately located, and subsequently repaired the leak, avoiding annual losses equivalent to £45,000 and 15,000m3 of water.

Waste and resources

Waste – Non‑financial indicators (tonnes)	2017‑18 Baseline[footnote 48]	2018‑19	2019‑20	2020‑21	2021‑22 restated[footnote 48]	2022-23
Landfill	6,565	1,323	1,355	4,922	3,615	3,008
Recycled/reused (Total)	27,949	41,666	42,113	33,169	25,074	24,431
WEEE (electrical & ICT)[footnote 49]	228	n/a	n/a	n/a	282	286
Food waste [footnote 49] ,[footnote 50]	2,180	n/a	n/a	n/a	4836	3,662
Incinerated with energy from waste	15,975	6,862	9,102	6,989	16,496	15,530
Incinerated without energy recovery	8	0	11	14	1	1
Total waste	50,497	49,851	52,581	45,094	45,186	42,970
Financial indicators (£m)						2.7

MoJ’s reported waste generation has decreased in 2022-23 compared to the 2017-18 baseline. This is due to ongoing waste reduction, reuse and repair initiatives. The improving trend since the 2021-22 reported performance is attributable to ongoing resource efficiency efforts and a review of waste data in 2022-23. Our Circular Economy Strategy has been drafted and we have developed several pilot recycle and repair workshops across the prison estate, thereby reducing waste and increasing recycling.

Paper usage

MoJ has reduced paper use by 44% compared to the 2017-18 baseline. This has been achieved through greater use of digital solutions including a trial of in-cell technology in place of paper-based systems.

Single-use plastics

Our single-use plastics policy, published in January 2019, continues to drive our work with facilities management providers to ensure that single-use plastics are only used when no viable alternative is available. We already specify wooden or non‑plastic cutlery items in catering outlets and prison settings utilise re-usable cutlery and plates.

Single-Use Plastic Policy

Biodiversity and rural proofing

MoJ has developed a Nature Recovery Plan – the first government department to do so – detailing nine principles of behaviour and action to restore biodiversity on our estate and benefit our people. Our biodiversity baseline has been completed, and Ecological Management Plans have been drafted for most of our large land holdings (remaining due 2023-24).

A performance dashboard has been developed and a Biodiversity policy for our estate has been drafted. HMPPS and Prison Industries teams have doubled their output to 200,000 saplings a year across seven tree nurseries. MoJ contributed to the Queen’s Green Canopy by planting 3,500 trees, orchards and hedging across the estate.

Nature recovery case study – HMP Woodhill Orchard Planting

Staff and prisoners at HMP Woodhill – a men’s high security prison and young offender institution in Milton Keynes – worked with partners to plant an orchard of 50 native tree species, with orchard planting training provided to both staff and prisoners.

MoJ has committed to planting 50 new orchards across the estate to inspire connection between people and nature, and HMP Woodhill is one of 17 planted in 2022-23 as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy.

Currently, 16 men are employed part time to maintain the orchard and advance the greening agenda within the open spaces, with the opportunity for the men to complete City & Guilds qualifications alongside the work. HMP Woodhill managers are committed to providing a safe educational environment for prisoners to make positive use of long sentences, with learning opportunities including developing horticultural skills in the prison gardens.

A prisoner from HMP Woodhill said: “I really enjoy the gardens; it gives me purpose and I enjoy learning.”

Sustainable procurement

MoJ’s approach to sustainable procurement is to educate, engage and embed sustainability across our commercial landscape while considering the operational environment and whole life value for money. We use a variety of communication methods to educate and influence staff and effect positive behaviour change, including tailored webinars focusing on our sustainability priorities including circular economy principles, climate change adaptation, carbon reduction and biodiversity. These sessions are supported by bespoke guidance that is available through our intranet and detailed in our policies, procedures, and the sharing of best practice case studies.

We have sought to develop a clearer understanding of the link between the GGCs and our procurements and contracts, through an assessment process that will help identify risks and opportunities to embed sustainability.

MoJ’s prison food contract ensures all goods are bought in line with animal welfare and fair trade or ethical standards. All animal derived foods are from farm assured sources, all fish and products containing palm oil are sustainably sourced, and over 50% of produce is from the UK.

We continue to look for opportunities to embed sustainability, for example, investigating opportunities to embed climate risk as part of the commercial risk framework and supply chain resilience work and detailed in our policies, procedures, and the sharing of best practice case studies.

Reducing environmental impacts from ICT and digital

MoJ’s digital and technology services are also focused on delivering more environmental outcomes. We have a digital sustainability working group to address the impacts of ICT on the environment, and we have adopted the Greening Government: ICT and Digital Services Strategy and associated targets. Within our prisons, we are undertaking trials of in-cell technology to reduce the reliance on paper.

A project to update part of the estate ICT equipment has resulted in nearly 25,000 devices collected, of which over 2,000 were reused in manufacturing, over 3,000 re-marketed and around 19,000 recycled. The supplier for end user ICT hardware disposes of these items via a recycling scheme and a third party that specialises in ICT recycling.

A printer recycling scheme at HMP Highpoint takes printers from a third party and dismantles, sorts and sends the components for recycling. The success of the pilot scheme means that HMP Highpoint will be handling the dismantling of around 600 machines per month. This provides work, training and a certificate of competence to the prisoners, and stops these machines being sent abroad for processing.

Sustainable construction

MoJ’s revised sustainable construction and BREEAM Policy (August 2021) requires all new build projects to target BREEAM Outstanding and major refurbishments to target BREEAM Excellent. Our next four new prisons aim to deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain, and will be all-electric, using green technologies such as photovoltaics and heat pumps to cut operational emissions by nearly 90%.

Antonia Romeo

Principal Accounting Officer

24 November 2023

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1. As at 31 March 2023. ↩

2. www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-outcome-delivery-plan/ministry-of-justice-outcome-delivery-plan-2021-22 ↩

3. Following the Autumn Statement 2022, the government agreed that departments would not be required to publish Outcome Delivery Plans for 2022-23 but should instead concentrate on the production of Outcome Delivery Plans for 2023-24. Outcome Delivery Plans continue to be an important internal tool for allowing departments to track delivery against their outcomes. The Chief Secretary of the Treasury and Minister for the Cabinet Office have decided that Departments will be required to produce internal ODPs for 2023-24, which we will report on the delivery of in our next set of Annual Reports and Accounts. This approach will enable focus on delivering the Prime Minister’s five priorities while satisfying the broader delivery metrics that ODPs track. ↩

4. Over the year to 31 March 2023, 4,663 band 3 to 5 officers were appointed (consisting of 4,314 direct new recruits, and existing staff who converted to a band 3 officer grade). ↩

5. www.gov.uk/government/publications/victims-and-prisoners-bill ↩

6. www.gov.uk/government/publications/end-to-end-rape-review-progress-report ↩

7. Over the year to 31 March 2023, 4,663 band 3 to 5 officers were appointed (consisting of 4,314 direct new recruits, and existing staff who converted to a band 3 officer grade). ↩

8. Prison Security Investment Programme: X-ray Body Scanner Management Information - GOV.UK ↩

9. Countering Drones: Finding and neutralising small UAS threats - Phase 2 - GOV.UK ↩

10. Terrorism in Prison – Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s Report and Government Response - GOV.UK ↩

11. First public parole hearing following government reforms - GOV.UK ↩

12. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-10-12/HCWS317 ↩

13. www.gov.uk/government/news/crime-news-extension-of-fee-rises-after-MoJ-and-cba-deal ↩

14. www.gov.uk/guidance/the-hmcts-reform-programme ↩

15. [www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service-engagement-groups](www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service-engagement-groups0 ↩

16. Victims and Prisoners Bill - GOV.UK ↩

17. www.gov.uk/government/publications/end-to-end-rape-review-progress-report ↩

18. New 24/7 support service for victims of rape launched - GOV.UK ↩

19. Judicial Pension Scheme 2022 Guide ↩

20. Government’s full response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review and consultation on policy proposals - GOV.UK ↩

21. Criminal Legal Aid Review (justice.gov.uk) ↩

22. www.gov.uk/government/news/borders-act-to-overhaul-asylum-system-becomes-law ↩

23. www.gov.uk/government/collections/illegal-migration-bill ↩

24. www.gov.uk/government/news/blame-game-ends-as-no-fault-divorce-comes-into-force ↩

25. www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-courts-tribunals-service-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023 ↩

26. https://data.justice.gov.uk/justice-in-numbers ↩

27. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-functional-standards/guide-to-functional-standards ↩

28. https://www.ce-awards.co.uk/finalists/CE-SECBE-Awards-2023-Winners ↩

29. https://sdgs.un.org/goals ↩

30. Drive to get offenders drug-free and cut crime - GOV.UK ↩

31. [www.gov.uk/government/publications/prisons-strategy-white-paper](www.gov.uk/government/publications/prisons-strategy-white-paper ↩

32. www.gov.uk/government/news/prisoners-start-as-apprentices-at-big-name-employers ↩

33. www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 ↩

34. www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-act-2021 ↩

35. https://newfuturesnetwork.gov.uk/ ↩

36. Ministry of Justice gender pay gap report: 2022 ↩

37. Inclusive Britain: government response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities – (GOV.UK) ↩

38. www.gov.uk/government/news/name-of-new-yorkshire-prison-revealed ↩

39. www.gov.uk/government/publications/prisons-strategy-white-paper ↩

40. Diversity of the judiciary: 2022 statistics – GOV.UK ↩

41. 2017-18 and 2021-22 calendar year data have been updated to reflect the full financial year, in line with HM Treasury reporting requirements. ↩ ↩²

42. Definitions for Scope 1-3 emissions – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-reporting-guidelines-including-mandatory-greenhouse-gas-emissions-reporting-guidance ↩

43. Previous reports showed values for renewable energy that referred to grid-supplied green tariff. This does not align with GGC reporting, which makes no allowance for green tariffs in the carbon reporting. The table has therefore been updated to show on-site generated renewable energy, with the original figures now merged with the electric figures. ↩

44. 2017-18 and 2021-22 calendar year data have been updated to reflect the full financial year, in line with HM Treasury reporting requirements. ↩ ↩²

45. Flights were impacted by the precautions taken during Covid-19 lockdown but are starting to increase again to meet business needs. ↩

46. Flight classification data not available for years 2018-2021. ↩

47. 2017-18 and 2021-22 calendar year data have been updated to reflect the full financial year, in line with HM Treasury reporting requirements. ↩ ↩²

48. 2017-18 and 2021-22 calendar year data has been updated to reflect the full financial year up to March 2023, in line with HM Treasury reporting requirements. ↩ ↩²

49. Food and electrical waste data not available for years 2018-2021. ↩ ↩²

50. Total waste arising in 2022-23 has reduced due to historic erroneous data correction and a reduction in prison waste. ↩