Corporate report

Annual report and accounts 2023-24: Performance (HTML)

Updated 22 November 2024

Applies to England and Wales

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

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 14 November 2024

ISBN 978-1-5286-5210-0

HC 276

© Crown copyright 2024

Overview

This section sets out the department’s objectives for 2023-24, the challenges to the delivery of our objectives and how we have performed during the year. Our outcomes for 2023-24 build on those included in the Outcome Delivery Plan 2021-22, 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

How we operate

MoJ is a ministerial department, supported by 35 executive agencies and other arm’s length bodies.

In 2023-24 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 2023-24 we worked together with purpose, focusing on protecting the public, reducing reoffending, delivering swift access to justice and reforming the constitution.

Read more about our strategic outcomes, objectives and performance on pages 17 to 64 (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 88,000 prisoners across over 100 prisons and supervises around 239,000 people on probation, providing a high level of monitoring and public protection. The prison service runs public sector prisons and oversees prisons run by private providers. A 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, domestic violence or their children being 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 Lady 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 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 ensuring 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 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.

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.

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.

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

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 in England and Wales.

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.

Oasis Restore Trust is a charitable trust responsible for the operation and management of Oasis Restore, a secure academy for individuals in the youth custody estate which aims to improve outcomes through specialised provision of care and rehabilitation.

2023-2024 in numbers

In this section we outline our performance during 2023-24. Here is a snapshot of the services we provide for the public. Further information on our performance is shown in the performance analysis on pages 25 to 64.

Courts and tribunals

We handled over 4.1 million cases during 2023-24, an increase of around 300,000 from 2022-23.

We held over 580,000 sitting days across our courts and tribunals in 2023-24, an increase of 2.6% from 2022‑23.

There was a 36% increase in adult rape cases going to the Crown Court in 2023 compared to 2022, demonstrating the impact of the Rape Review Action Plan.

Over 553,000 cases were received in the family court and we held over 131,000 sitting days.

Prisons and probation

On 31 March 2024, there were 238,993 offenders supervised by the Probation Service in England and Wales, which has remained broadly unchanged over the past year.

On 31 March 2024, there were 87,869 prisoners in England and Wales, an increase of 4% compared to the previous year.

We increased the number of prisons with Incentivised Substance-Free Living Units from 50 in 2022-23 to 80 in 2023‑24.

We opened the first video conferencing centre in a women’s prison in HMP Bronzefield in May 2023, making a total of 16 in the custodial estate.

20,084 individuals were fitted with an electronic monitoring device as of 31 March 2024, an increase of 16% from 17,350 as of 31 March 2023.

Legal Aid Agency, Office of the Public Guardian and Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority

We processed over 360,000 legal aid applications in 2023-24, compared to over 350,000 in 2022-23. 100% of criminal applications were processed in 2 working days and 93% of civil applications in 20 working days, except the most complex cases.

We processed more than 1.3 million legal aid bills in 2023‑24, compared to over 1.25 million in 2022‑23. 99% of complete, accurate bills were paid within 20 working days, exceeding the 95% target.

We took over 100,000 civil and over 35,000 crime legal aid calls. We answered 85% of civil and 87% of crime calls in 5 minutes or less, achieving our 75% target. On average, our call handling satisfied 99% of civil and 89% of crime callers.

We received around 1.3 million applications (LPA and EPA) in 2023-24, compared to around 1 million in 2022-23.

We resolved over 37,100 injury claims, an increase of 7% from 2022-23 and 13% above the prior five-year average of 32,874, with victims of crime benefiting from over £164 million in compensation.

Corporate

In 2023-24 from the staff who declared their disability status, 17.4% were declared disabled, up from 17.0% in 2022‑23. The figure for senior civil servants was 12.6% in 2023‑24, up from 12.2% in 2022-23.

In 2023-24, of staff who declared their ethnicity, 16.9% were from ethnic minorities, up from 15.8% in 2022-23. The figure for senior civil servants was 8.8% in 2023-24, down from 9.9% in 2022-23.

Our emissions have reduced by 28% compared to our baseline year (2017‑18), against a target of 41% by 2025.

Parliamentary activity

53 statutory instruments were laid, compared to 52 in 2022-23.

91% of 4,190 parliamentary questions were answered within the parliamentary deadline, against a target of 85%.

Forewords

From the Permanent Secretary

I am pleased to present the Annual Report and Accounts for the Ministry of Justice. Over the past year, we have made significant strides in achieving our strategic outcomes, which are to protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons, reduce reoffending, and deliver swift access to justice.

On the prisons side, to help meet the increasing prison population, we are building 20,000 modern, rehabilitative places through the construction of new prisons, expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate, and temporary accommodation. We opened HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire in June 2023, and construction continues on HMP Millsike, which is due to open in 2025. We have secured outline planning permission for our fourth new prison, near the existing HMP Gartree in Leicestershire, and for our fifth new prison, near the existing HMP Grendon in Buckinghamshire, which will deliver around 3,000 places between them.

To create environments that support recovery in prison, the drug recovery wing at HMP New Hall is now operational, and by March 2024 we had opened Incentivised Substance Free Living units in 80 prisons, up from 50 in 2022-23. Trace Detection equipment has now been rolled out, providing next generation equipment across all public sector prisons to help prevent the smuggling of illegal drugs impregnated in fabrics and through the mail.

We have maintained our focus on reducing reoffending, and have seen much progress in the reporting period. We launched the new Prisoner Education Service in September 2023, focusing on giving prisoners the skills they need to move into employment or further training on release. We have continued to see an increase in the percentage of prison leavers in employment six months post-release, more than doubling performance in three years from 14% in 2020-21 to over 30% in 2023-24.

We have also taken measures to strengthen and stabilise the prison and probation system, including in June 2024 the extension of Home Detention Curfew which allows the early release of offenders under electronic monitoring. We have increased the number of offenders on electronic monitoring by 16%, with the total number increasing to just over 20,000, providing an alternative to custody and helping to monitor the behaviour of people at risk of reoffending.

Outside the timeframe of this report, in July 2024, the newly-appointed Lord Chancellor announced measures to address capacity pressures, including implementing legislation to change the automatic release point for those serving standard determinate sentences from 50% to 40% (SDS40). This excludes serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more, sex offences, and certain domestic abuse-connected offences. The first tranche of releases took place on 10 September and the second tranche of releases on 22 October.

We are also committed to delivering swift access to justice. Challenges remain in relation to the open caseload in Courts and Tribunals, a legacy of both the pandemic and of higher volumes of cases being received. However, we continue to take measures to reduce the caseload where possible. In 2023-24, we increased the number of Crown Court sitting days by 7% (from 2022-23) to over 107,000, the highest level since 2016-17.

We have continued to exceed the ambitions first articulated in the 2021 Rape Review, on targeted numbers of referrals, charges, and receipts. Adult rape prosecutions are higher than any other period in the last six years.

In July, we welcomed the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, and her Ministerial team to the department. I would like to thank the outgoing Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Alex Chalk MP, and his Ministerial team, for their commitment and service during the reporting period.

There were also changes to the department’s Executive Committee in the reporting year. Following an operating model review of the department, a new director general role for Service Transformation was created, and Megan Lee-Devlin appointed to the role in March 2024. The Executive Team and I have been well supported by the department’s non-executive directors – thank you to all of them, and in particular our Lead Non-Executive Director Mark Rawlinson, for their support throughout the year. The dedication and professionalism of our staff and partners have made the achievements of the last year possible, despite the challenges posed by rising demand across the criminal justice system and an uncertain operational and fiscal environment.

Our most valuable asset is our 96,000 people working for the MoJ and its agencies. I am pleased that in October 2023 we again increased or maintained our scores in all core theme areas in the 2023 Civil Service People Survey. It is thanks to the efforts of colleagues in the department that we have been able to achieve and deliver so much over the past year. It is a privilege to lead them and continue our purposeful work, focusing on our priorities for the justice system and supporting the Lord Chancellor and Ministerial team in the coming year.

Dame Antonia Romeo DCB

Permanent Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer

From the Lead Non-Executive Board Member

Departmental Board members have continued to work in a highly challenging operational and policy landscape. 2023-24 has remained a significantly difficult year, with the department facing two critical issues from my perspective as Lead Non-Executive Director: prison capacity and the Crown Court caseload. The department has responded to growing capacity pressures, particularly in the adult male prison estate, by taking further steps to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders, extending the use of Home Detention Curfew and introducing an early release measure, among other steps. In addition to tackling immediate pressures, the department has continued to take steps to address rising demand in the medium to long term.

In the Crown Court, the department has introduced measures to increase capacity of the courts and hear more cases, funding over 107,000 Crown Court sitting days in 2023-24 in an effort to tackle the higher-than-expected number of cases entering the courts over the year.

To support its oversight and governance, the department appointed three additional non-executive board members (Jennifer Rademaker, Jonathan Spence and Andrew Robb) on 21 August 2023, following a fair and open recruitment campaign. The members complemented the existing cadre with valuable technological and commercial skills and expertise. The non‑executives provided valuable scrutiny of our key performance indicators and advice on how to improve board-level understanding of the department’s performance.

The Delivery Board that I chair met five times in 2023-24 and scrutinised some of the largest and most complex of MoJ’s major projects and programmes on the Government Major Projects Portfolio. This included the department’s technical debt, the HMCTS court reform programme, the Evolve IT portfolio, the Synergy Future Shared Services Programme and MoJ’s implementation (as part of a four department cluster), and the property transformation programme.

The non-executives have also supported the department in assessing its data and digital capabilities and identifying opportunities to optimise structures and increase efficiency. The non-executives continue to support and challenge the department in its drive to be transformative and innovative. 

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 develop the ARAC through a critical review of arrangements and improving information flows with the department’s agencies. Jonathan Spence joined the ARAC as a new member, providing focused scrutiny in particular to support strengthening of the department’s commercial capabilities.

The Departmental Board met three times during the reporting year and the in-depth reviews included discussion on short and long-term prison estates strategy and probation delivery within the criminal justice system. It also considered the annual board effectiveness review undertaken for the period 2022-23. As commissioned by the Secretary of State and in line with Cabinet Office guidance, I subsequently supported the independently led review and evaluation of the Departmental Board to assess its strengths and areas of development for the period 2023-24. The independent review was undertaken by the lead non-executive board member of the Department of Health and Social Care and overall, the board was found to be functioning well.

As non-executives, we are grateful to successive Lord Chancellors and the Executive, under the astute leadership of the Permanent Secretary, for their willingness to engage us in the multifaceted and complex issues facing the department.

Mark Rawlinson

Non-Executive Board Member

Chief Operating Officer’s review of the year

Introduction

The department’s resource departmental expenditure limit (RDEL) budget, as voted by Parliament in the Supplementary Estimate, was £11,400 million. Capital departmental expenditure limit (CDEL) was £1,518 million, resource annually managed expenditure (AME) was £697 million and capital AME was £23 million.

MoJ’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 2023-24 was £1,788 million, compared to £1,711 million in 2022-23, an increase of 4.5%. As a proportion of our gross resource budget, income made up 15% in 2023-24 compared to 16% in 2022-23.

The budgets agreed for MoJ at the Supplementary Estimate, outturn for 2023-24 and the variance to the budget are shown in the table below. This table ties directly to the Statement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply (SOPS) on page 133. The SOPS is a key accountability statement which is audited.

MoJ successfully managed its spend within the control totals voted by Parliament.

Figure 1: Performance against parliamentary control totals

	Supplementary Estimate £m	Outturn £m	Variance £m
RDEL	11,400	11,300	70
Of which
Administration	546	517	29
CDEL	1,518	1,458	60
Resource AME*	697	505	192
Capital AME*	23	7	16
Net cash	12,326	11,835	491

*AME is demand led spending, where budgets are not fixed in advance. Expenditure in AME is generally less predictable and controllable than expenditure in DEL. AME is split between resource and capital expenditure. Resource AME covers costs that may be unpredictable, such as provisions and pensions and benefits, and capital AME covers unpredictable costs which also give rise to an asset in the financial statements.

Resource

The majority of the MoJ’s resource budget is spent on operational services: running prisons and probation services, running the courts and tribunals system, and funding legal aid. These are largely driven by levels of demand coming into the justice system, including decisions and actions from other parts of government.​

The department faced significant financial pressures in 2023-24, predominantly due to inflationary and pay pressures being higher than had been planned for at Spending Review 2021. We managed down these pressures by making reductions in some areas of our resource budget, as well as switching funding from unspent capital to resource. However, additional funding was required at year-end due to further unforeseen pressures that emerged in-year, including a shortfall in fee income and one-off cost of living payments to the department.

We continue to invest in delivering the department’s priority outcomes. The Crown Court was funded to sit unlimited sitting days, ensuring Crown Court judges could hear the highest possible number of criminal cases. We have also continued to invest in reducing reoffending, in line with the £488 million investment over the current Spending Review period.

We have also continued to invest in reducing reoffending, in line with the £488 million investment over the current Spending Review period.

Figure 2 shows where we spend our money. The vast majority of our resource funding is spent on staff, contracts and legal aid expenditure. The largest area of spend is on our people. Staff costs account for almost 42% of the department’s gross expenditure, with the biggest employer being HMPPS. Legal aid costs are the next largest category of spend and provide end users with financial support to meet the costs of legal advice and legal representation in court delivered by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), making up 18.9% of RDEL.

Capital

A significant part of the MoJ’s capital budget is spent on large change programmes, with the majority of this being spent on the 20,000 prison build programme. The rest of the capital budget is spent on maintenance costs for the courts and tribunals, prisons and MoJ HQ estates, leases, and digital and technology. Much of our construction and building maintenance spend is contracted out and subject to inflationary pressures. We continue to focus on progressing our capital projects while managing the impact of rising material costs and pressure on suppliers.

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. This includes opening HMP Fosse Way, which took its first prisoner in May 2023.

Since Spending Review 2021, we have experienced significant delays in our prison build programme, predominantly due to delays in planning permission and pressure on suppliers. This resulted in £220 million underspends in prison build capital in 2023-24.

We also completed the prison technology transformation programme which served to replace aged digital infrastructure of our digital estate and improved access and increased efficiency across our prisons and probation services.

In August 2023, we increased the capital budget for the courts and tribunals estate, with £220 million being provided for maintenance and major projects across 2023-24 and 2024‑25. The improvements to the court estate will make our buildings accessible and sustainable and ensure that those on the front line of the justice system will benefit from modern, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.

In 2023‑24, we invested £116 million in maintenance, renovations and renewal of our courts and tribunals buildings, with a further £38 million spent on acquiring new properties and renewing leases, making our buildings safe and secure and protecting continuity of service. £61 million was spent on our courts and tribunals IT assets, supporting the final stages of reform and reducing technical debt from our legacy systems, many of which are no longer supported. This is essential to enable us to deliver a modern, reliable and efficient service.

Figure 2: Departmental expenditure 2023-24 by category of spend (£ millions)

Costs	HMPPS	HMCTS	LAA, OPG, and CICA	MoJ HQ and arm’s length bodies	Total
People costs*	3295	1379	138	842	5654
ICT costs	34	232	0	207	473
Prisoner-related costs	800	0	0	0	800
Private Finance Initiative service charges	720	34	0	0	754
Depreciation and amortisation	475	375	15	71	936
Estate costs	530	321	7	37	895
Legal aid	0	0	2142	0	2142
Other costs**	438	201	352	997	1988

*People costs (staff and judiciary) include wages and salaries, social security costs, pension costs, early departure costs and the net cost of secondments in and out.

**‘Other costs’ of £1.57 billion include: grants £309 million (Note 11), contracted out costs £270 million (£173.2 million Note 6 and £96.4 million Note 11), compensation to victims of crime £211 million (Note 20), other programme costs £178 million (Note 11), and professional services £106 million (Note 6).

The remainder, spread over various expenditure lines, totals £503 million.

Future plans

We have finalised our budget settlement for 2024-25 and 2025-26 with HM Treasury through the first phase of Spending Review 25. The second phase of the Spending Review will set budgets from 2026‑27 onwards and is an opportunity to leverage technology, other assets, upstream investment and prevention, to build a financial strategy for the medium and long term.

Our performance

Our priorities in 2023-24 were to:

• protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons
• reduce reoffending
• deliver swift access to justice

We use operational data to understand and improve our performance. Our published performance metric information can be found on GOV.UK. ^{[footnote 1]}

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 25 to 64 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. In 2023-24 we prioritised public protection by:

• delivering around 6,000 additional prison places since 2020, through construction, expansion and refurbishment ^{[footnote 2]}
• making the prison and probation system more resilient, including temporary measures, to relieve the most acute capacity pressures
• increasing the number of individuals monitored by an electronic monitoring device by 16% to 20,084, along with the implementation of various programmes and initiatives
• continuing to tackle terrorism in prisons and probation by delivering seven of the 13 accepted recommendations from Jonathan Hall’s report ‘Terrorism in Prisons’ ^{[footnote 3]}
• implementing the commitments in the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan to support women in custody and improve their rehabilitative outcomes ^{[footnote 4]}

Reduce reoffending

We are working to divert people away from crime by tackling the main drivers of reoffending with a focus on accommodation, employment, education and skills, and substance misuse treatment. In 2023-24, we addressed this by:

• increasing the percentage of prison leavers in employment six months after release from 14% to over 30% over three years
• securing an additional £15.5 million over four years to support employment activity in prison
• improving the proportion of prison leavers housed on release through the use of temporary community accommodation (CAS3), housing 6,295 individuals who would have otherwise been homeless ^{[footnote 5]}
• expanding the number of prisons with an Incentivised Substance-Free Living units to 80, up from 50 in 2022-23, enabling more prisoners to address their addictions through abstinence‑based treatment
• launching the new Prisoner Education Service in September 2023, aiming to improve literacy, numeracy and employability skills among prisoners ^{[footnote 6]}
• opening the country’s first secure school in August 2024, a brand-new custodial facility for children and young people with education at its centre

Deliver swift access to justice

Justice is a vital public service, relied on directly by citizens, including victims, families and businesses. It underpins the operation of both society and the economy in our country. Throughout 2023-24 we delivered this through:

• increasing the number of Crown Court sitting days to over 107,000
• exceeding our ambition for the number of adult rape cases progressing through the criminal justice system, with 662 cases received in the Crown Court between October and December 2023 against an ambition of 553
• continuing to improve victims’ experience of the criminal justice system, ensuring they have access to the support they need
• completing the rollout of a new Common Platform case management system

Strategic enablers

Our corporate functions support delivery of our
priority outcomes by:

• surpassing our 2027 national Places for Growth targets by relocating 2,300 roles outside of London and expanding our national office network to 40 locations, up from 29 in March 2023, driving greater efficiency from the estate, broadening our talent pool and providing opportunities nationwide
• contributing to prisoner rehabilitation through technology tools that facilitate booking of activities, appointments, visits and in-cell technology for learning and administration – we have rolled out 60,000 in-cell phones across 93 prisons, supporting prisoners’ wellbeing and making prisons safer
• supporting prison staff through modern technology such as the Digital Prison Service and Calculate a Release Date Service, reducing the time spent on administration ^{[footnote 7]}
• using data linking via the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme to improve data management and decision making through advanced analysis ^{[footnote 8]}
• focusing on sustainability in all our operations – our four new prisons (Millsike, Gartree, Grendon and Garth) are designed to be all-electric, net zero-ready and, where possible, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) outstanding ^{[footnote 9]}, ^{[footnote 10]}, ^{[footnote 11]}
• reducing our carbon footprint by planting 200,000 trees across nine prisons to support cross-government tree planting initiatives, and partnering with Forestry England to plant trees through community payback, establishing purposeful activity for offenders

Principal risk summary

Principal risk area	Outcome /enabler	Trend this year	Comment on trend	External factors
Operational delivery: Ensuring effective service delivery and compliance in our operations.	1,2,3	Increase	The upward trend in net prisoner inflows from 2022-23 has continued. This has created further pressure in prisons despite bringing on new prison capacity through a combination of new builds, expansions and temporary accommodation. Challenging staffing levels in some services and capability have added to this, however improvements have been seen in retention levels towards the end of 2023-24. We have seen an increase to the average age of cases in the system. In the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, improvements to throughput and productivity are essential to reducing risks. Improvement in the criminal courts is intrinsically tied to improving prison capacity. We have also seen a sustained increase in demand for our services in CICA and OPG. Additional workforce has been recruited to manage this, but it will take sustained effort to improve performance.	Criminal justice system demand, labour markets, planning permission, economic factors, supply chain costs and stability, and cost of living impacts
Capacity: Managing and maintaining sufficient criminal justice system capacity to meet demand.	1,2,3	Increase	The adult male prison estate faced acute capacity challenges across the year, exceeding critical capacity on four occasions. Measures taken in September and October 2024 have mitigated short‑term risks. Medium‑term forecasts suggest further material growth in the prison population. In courts we have kept open the temporary Nightingale courtrooms and remain committed to further judicial recruitment to increase judicial capacity. Ageing property infrastructure continues to impact physical capacity across the operations of HMCTS and HMPPS.	Planning permission and environmental requirements for new build and expansion capacity, and criminal justice system demand
People and capability: Recruiting and retaining sufficient capable individuals to ensure continually effective service delivery.	1,2,3,4,5	No change	Recruitment and retention rates in our prisons have improved throughout 2023-24. This is due to increased media advertising, improvement to the employment offer, and quicker time to hire, with fewer applicants falling out of the process. Given the recent high volume of recruitment into prisons and the associated safety risks, there has been more focus on building capability of prison staff. Capability concerns remain in all parts of the organisation but these are managed locally.	Other government department pay and labour market factors, cost of living, and changing needs of employees
Digital: Reducing the level of technical debt and improving resilience and flexibility of digital and technology services to the business. Improving innovation and productivity.	1,3,4,5	No change	We have made progress on critical systems, but resource constraints mean that technical debt remains in many areas. Attracting technical skills and capability continues to be an issue.	Competitive labour markets, rapid development of new technologies, and 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.	1,3,4,5	No change	We have implemented a refreshed campaign to improve our information security culture through policy. This includes seeking supplier assurance given MoJ’s reliance on outsourced services. Due to a heightened risk from cyber threats, work is being done to improve incident management and recovery from incidents or breaches. A Cyber Silver Command exercise has been conducted.	Geopolitical tensions, economic climate particularly cost of living increases, and rapid development of new technologies
Commercial: Ensuring we can put in place and manage effective contracts which support the delivery of justice services.	1,2,3,4,6	No change	Supply chain risks and issues have continued across multiple industries. MoJ monitors the financial stability of its major suppliers and develops contingency plans, in the event any supplier fails.	Market cost pressures coupled with exchange rate fluctuations, supply chain costs and stability
Change: We have an ambitious portfolio of change projects with a range of risks that require active management to ensure delivery.	1,2,3,5,6,7	No change	Focus this year has been on ensuring programmes within our major change portfolio are set up for success and adhere to the appropriate government standards. Work is ongoing to improve scheduling and costing for programmes as we have seen a rise in the number of projects needing to re-base this year due to overambitious timescales and our tight fiscal position. We continue to provide robust oversight, constructive challenge processes and a strong cadre of project delivery professionals, who provide expertise across the portfolio.	Planning permission, inflationary pressures on construction materials, and market cost pressures
Evidence and insight: Ensuring decisions taken by ministers and others are underpinned by sufficiently accurate evidence.	1,2,3,4,5	Increase	Demand caused by prison capacity challenges created workload challenges in Data Analytical Services. We are piloting data governance and ownership to help drive collaborative solutions. Data engineering continues to improve data pipelines towards delivery of data warehousing in 2024-25.	Reliance on other government department delivery partners to join up criminal justice system data
Property: Maintaining an estate that is compliant, operational, environmentally sensitive and efficient.	1,2,3,5,7	No change	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 2023-24, with the prisons programme completed in December 2023. We have managed a range of compliance risks throughout the year including asbestos, fire safety, Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete and radon levels at some sites.	Inflationary pressures on construction materials and supply shortages
Climate change and sustainability: Adapting effectively to physical and transition climate change exposures.	1,2,3,5,7	Increase	Risk management controls are in place, but they do not materially reduce risk exposure, and some risk areas continue to rise. Compliance risks have increased as new obligations are introduced. Grant funding has been secured for three decarbonisation projects, increased solar power generation, connections to six district heating schemes, and 20,000 LEDs.	Extreme weather and increasing compliance obligations
Finance: Long-term funding uncertainty and inflationary pressures on current budgets disrupted operational delivery, inefficiency and reputational damage.	1,2,3,4,5,6,7	No change	Short-term financial risks were minimised by a positive outcome of our efficiency and savings review. In-year pressures were higher than previous years due to a number of factors, including shortfalls in income and pay. This led to a fiscal reserve claim in 2023-24. We managed all other in-year pressures through robust management controls and prioritisation decisions. Long-term plans are being developed to support the next Spending Review.	Wider macro-economic environment, in particular inflationary pressures and consequent pay settlements, and judicial litigation

Key to outcomes and strategic enablers

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

Our performance analysis

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

We have maintained our commitment to addressing the capacity challenges faced within prisons, ensuring the ongoing protection of the public.

Prison capacity

The adult male prison estate has been under acute pressure since autumn 2022 due to a rise in the remand population. Increased charging by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, and changes in sentencing policy, has had knock-on impacts across the whole justice system.

In response to the increasing demand, we have:

• introduced a package of measures to increase resilience in the system, including the extension of Home Detention Curfew and reforming Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences
• introduced the End of Custody Supervised Licence in October 2023 to provide temporary emergency relief for the most acute capacity pressures
• expanded the early removal scheme to allow the removal of foreign national offenders up to 18 months before the end of their custodial sentence
• implemented short-term measures to expand usable capacity across the prison estate by adding around 1,700 places since September 2022 to March 2024, including doubling up cells where safe to do so and delaying non-essential maintenance – in addition to the places being delivered via the 20,000 places programme
• as at 1 April 2024, delivered around 6,000 additional prison places since 2020, as part of the 20,000 places programme – around 80% (16,100 places) of the 20,000 target places have now either secured planning permission, can proceed under permitted development rights, are not subject to planning requirements, or have been delivered, while construction is currently underway at the new prison HMP Millsike in Yorkshire, due to open in 2025

Following the change in government, the new Lord Chancellor announced measures to address the capacity pressures in July 2024. We have implemented legislation to change the automatic release point for those serving standard determinate sentences from 50% to 40% (SDS40), with important exclusions for serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more, sex offences and certain domestic abuse-connected offences. The first tranche of releases took place on 10 September and the second tranche on 22 October, and we have committed to reviewing this change in 18 months.

There have been delays to the 20,000 places programme delivery. These include for the new prisons programme, where planning permission refusals and subsequent appeals have introduced significant delays to progress at HMPs Grendon, Gartree and Garth. Challenging conditions on other sites have lengthened construction phases. We are continuing to push ahead with further options to deliver capacity across the estate, including looking at all options for accelerating timelines.

Probation

The measures we have taken to address prison capacity pressures are expected to create additional demand for probation services. In particular, the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme introduced in October 2023 placed additional demands on probation, as has its successor, the SDS40 scheme introduced under the new Lord Chancellor in September 2024.

We implemented Probation Reset, a strategic initiative designed to alleviate workload pressures and ensure that staff can focus on supervising the most serious offenders. This was fully implemented from July 2024 and prioritises early engagement and supervision during the initial two-thirds of an offender’s sentence, a critical period where probation staff can exert the greatest impact on public protection and reducing reoffending.

Prison and probation staffing

We have made significant progress addressing capacity issues within our prisons and probation systems through recruiting additional operational staff. In 2023-24 we have successfully:

• appointed 543 trainee probation officers and continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions to help bolster probation capacity
• appointed 5,264 band 3-5 prison officers and focused on increasing staff retention through improving pay and support

Safety and security

We are committed to ensuring that our prisons are safe and secure places to live, work and support rehabilitation. Despite ongoing efforts, rates of assaults and self-harm remain high, influenced by wider prison capacity and staffing pressures. We are actively addressing this by:

• providing targeted support to prisons with the highest rate of assaults
• undertaking a range of work including alternatives to wet shave razors and prisoner debt which can impact violence and self-harm
• continuing to take action to tackle the high rates of self-harm in the female estate

In our continued efforts to tackle serious and organised crime, we have:

• embedded regional Serious and Organised Crime Hubs to improve the identification and management of threats across prisons and probation
• detected and deterred the conveyance of illegal substances into prisons, supported by the drone-only restricted airspace legislation for prisons and young offender institutions, which came into effect in January 2024

Women in the criminal justice system

We have improved outcomes for women in the criminal justice system, ensuring they have access to the right support when they need it by:

• staying on track to meet all our commitments set out in the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan ^{[footnote 12]}
• collaborating with health partners to progress delivery of recommendations as outlined in the Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review, published in November 2023, which aims to ensure that all women in prison, as well as those who are released, have fair and equal opportunities to access health and social care services ^{[footnote 13]}
• mobilising an Early Days Service in five women’s prisons to improve support for women in the first 28 days of custody
• launching a pilot to provide domestic abuse and sexual violence workers in seven women’s prisons, alongside a young adults pilot in two of our prisons focused on improving outcomes for women aged 25 and under

Counter terrorism in prisons

We continue to make progress combatting terrorism in prisons via the Joint Counter Terrorism in Prisons and Probation Hub, which works in partnership with Counter Terrorism Police and the Security Service to increase our intelligence gathering and identify terrorist threats.

We have also:

• continued to implement the recommendations of the review by Jonathan Hall KC into terrorism in prisons, with seven of the 13 accepted recommendations now delivered
• improved our ability to counter terrorist activity in prisons based on the findings of the Counter Terrorism Joint Inspection in July 2023, focusing on joint work between prisons, probation and the police ^{[footnote 14]}
• used our prison network application tool, which links up multiple sources of administrative data to help detect prisoners involved with drug smuggling, gang violence and organised crime

Electronic monitoring

We continue to strengthen the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system. We have:

• increased the number of individuals fitted with an electronic monitoring device, with the total number increasing by 16% from 17,350 on 31 March 2023 to 20,084 on 31 March 2024
• continued to improve awareness and understanding of electronic monitoring as an alternative to remand among the police, Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary
• published the Electronic Monitoring Court Bail Protocol for England and Wales in August 2023, which sets out information for those involved in imposing and managing electronically monitored conditions of court bail ^{[footnote 15]}

Legislation

In November 2023, we introduced the Sentencing Bill to ensure that the public are protected from the most serious offenders, whilst reforming short sentences. ^{[footnote 16]}

The Victims and Prisoners Act gained Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. ^{[footnote 17]} It introduced a requirement for the police to ensure that a victim’s counselling records are likely to add ‘substantial probative value’ to their investigation before a request can be made. This change is designed to protect the privacy of victims and ensure that only pertinent information is considered in the investigative process.

The Victims and Prisoners Act also introduced changes to the parole system following the Root and Branch Review in March 2022 to increase public confidence. These changes include:

• establishing a clear statutory release test, placing the safety of the public at the forefront of parole deliberations
• introducing a provision for ministers to invoke a review by the High Court and direct a second check by an independent court on behalf of the public, ensuring an additional layer of scrutiny for the release of the most serious offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists
• reforming the eligibility periods for termination of licences for those sentenced to Imprisonment for Public Protection

Our performance metrics

Usable prison place

Prison capacity - usable prison places

The number of useable prison places increased by 3,432 (4%) from 85,503 to 88,935 between 31 March 2023 and 22 March 2024. Prison capacity continues to be put under pressure by increasing demand.

The net increase is explained by the combination of additional prison places being delivered through the 20,000 build programme (around 6,000 to the end of March 2024) and contingency measures which include increasing capacity within existing provision and a reduction in the number of places offline for maintenance activities. This is offset by the number of cells that are taken out of use for maintenance and through dilapidation.

As part of the 6,000 additional places, HMP Fosse Way, which opened in June 2023, added 1,715 new prison places, and rapid deployment cells have also provided 666 places across 12 sites. We continue working towards our target of creating 20,000 prison places by building new prisons, expanding, renovating and refurbishing the existing estate.

Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults

Rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners

The rate of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults increased by 17%, from 185 to 217 (per 1,000 prisoners) between the year ending March 2023 and March 2024. The prisoner-on-prisoner assault incidents rate remains below the pre-pandemic levels. The data above does not cover the youth secure estate.

Prisoner-on-staff assaults

Rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners

The rate of prisoner-on-staff assaults increased by 24%, from 92 to 114 (per 1,000 prisoners) between the year ending March 2023 and March 2024. The data above does not include the youth secure estate.

Self-harm incidents

Monthly rate of incidents per 1,000 prisoners

The rate of self-harm was 852 incidents per 1,000 prisoners in the year ending March 2024, a 16% increase from the 12 months to March 2023. This comprised a 25% increase in male establishments and a 4% decrease in female establishments. The self-harm trends vary significantly by gender, with the rate in female prisons being almost nine times higher than in male prisons. The youth secure estate is not included in the data above.

Random mandatory drug tests

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

Although the use of random mandatory drug testing in prisons increased during 2023-24 by 25% to 51,452, from 41,308 in 2022-23, testing has not yet to returned to pre-COVID-19 levels due to operational and staffing pressures. We have allocated £8.8 million for mandatory drug testing in prisons. This delivers all forms of mandatory drug testing, including random and suspicion-based testing. We are rolling out trials to capture the variety and prevalence of illicit substances in prisons. These include:

• wastewater testing to provide us with detailed insight into the types of drugs being used in prisons
• a forensic testing service for drug finds and seizures introduced in April 2023

All public sector prisons have been provided with trace detection technology to enable the identification of drugs soaked onto paper or fabric.

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 2022.

There is a lag in conviction data to allow time for cases to conclude at court. 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 on GOV.UK. ^{[footnote 18]}

Priority outcome 2: Reduce reoffending

We have supported individuals in custody by addressing their accommodation, educational and vocational needs through the following measures:

Employment

Access to education is crucial to improving the employment rate of prison leavers. Most prisoners have low levels of education and 42% were excluded from school. ^{[footnote 19]} We will continue to equip prisoners through access to education, training and work to give all prison leavers the best chance to lead law-abiding lives. To address this, we have:

• improved prisoners’ progress in English and/or maths, improving attendance at educational lessons and increasing participation in purposeful activities – our focus on individualised regime planning has played a role in achieving these positive outcomes
• increased the percentage of prison leavers in employment six months after release to over 30%
• successfully engaged with over 200 employers through our Unlocking Potential initiative, resulting in 238 prison events and over 150 job offers, with ongoing events through 2024 in various sectors – providing greater opportunities for those seeking employment after release
• introduced apprenticeships in open prisons, with plans to extend these opportunities to closed prisons – the HMP Academies initiative has developed a national framework by securing 12 new suppliers, linking in-prison work with post-release employment

Accommodation

Our ongoing efforts to support prison leavers include facilitating access to accommodation and strengthening prisoners’ ties with their families. This approach provides them with the best opportunity to break away from their previous life of crime. We have:

• expanded on Community Accommodation Services – between April 2023 and March 2024, we provided temporary housing for 6,295 individuals who would otherwise have been homeless on release, 2,400 places for 13,000 high-risk people on probation, and accommodation for 2,600 low-to-medium-risk offenders on Home Detention Curfew or bail
• improved our support for prisoners to maintain family connections by introducing secure social video calling, facilitating over 230,000 calls this year

Substance misuse

Support and treatment for prisoners struggling with substance misuse is important to breaking the cycle of reoffending. We supported prisoners by:

• increasing the number of prisons with an Incentivised Substance-Free Living units to 80, up from 50 in 2022-23
• introducing three recovery-focused approved premises to provide post-release continuity for those in recovery
• recruiting 19 Drug Strategy leads in prisons to aid prisoners in continuing addiction recovery after release, bringing the total to 37
• recruiting health and justice partnership co‑ordinators to build connections between substance misuse and mental health services
• rolling out 600 tele-recovery laptops to enable community providers to deliver virtual appointments before release, bringing the total to 1,000 in the prison estate
• opening more abstinence-focused drug recovery wings, bringing the total to seven, including one in the women’s estate at HMP New Hall
• working with NHS England to roll out lifesaving naloxone which can be used in emergencies to reverse the effects of an overdose

We are working to get offenders with substance misuse problems into community treatment programmes instead of prison, focusing on their recovery by increasing engagement in treatment through community sentences with drug rehabilitation requirements. In 2023-24, efforts to promote drug rehabilitation requirements have included:

• improving probation’s capability to drug test individuals with drug rehabilitation requirements for better compliance monitoring
• introducing a screening tool to assist probation in identifying drug needs and informing the court prior to sentencing
• initiating pilot intensive supervision courts for regular offender reviews by the same judge, ensuring tailored progress in substance misuse treatment and other interventions

Readjustment to society

We will continue to improve support for prison leavers and ensure that the elements proven to reduce reoffending are in place when a person leaves prison.

We have done this by:

• launching the Friday Release Scheme in June 2023, to facilitate earlier discharge for people leaving custody at risk of reoffending – allowing them to access resettlement support services before the weekend or public holidays ^{[footnote 20]}
• developing resettlement passports to equip released prisoners with a personalised digital passport – aiding those at risk of reoffending to transition back into society
• using release on temporary licence to support temporary releases for resettlement

Education

In 2023-24, MoJ has been actively trying to expand educational opportunities for prisoners to aid in reducing reoffending by:

• launching the Prisoner Education Service in September 2023, which aims to improve prisoners’ literacy, numeracy and employability skills – achievements include expanding secure laptops for in-cell study, procuring new learning content, and appointing neurodiversity support managers in 113 prisons
• launching the HMPPS National Regime Model in January 2024, which aims to improve prison regimes by increasing time out of cell, time in the open air, essential work, and tier 1 activities like education and work ^{[footnote 21]}

Children and young people in custody and the community

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

• opening the first secure school, Oasis Restore, in August 2024 – this pioneering ‘school with security’ serves as a Secure Academy Trust, offering an integrated health and education programme for children in custody ^{[footnote 22]}
• launching a new education contract for England’s young offender institutions to offer a comprehensive curriculum through both classroom teaching and digital learning
• providing funding to 154 youth offending teams across England and Wales via the early intervention Turnaround programme, on track to divert up to 17,500 children away from reoffending ^{[footnote 23]}

Our performance metrics

Prison leavers employment (6 months post)

Percent of prison leavers in work six months after their release

The percentage of prison leavers in work six months after their release increased by 5.2 percentage points from 25.9% to 31.1% between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Post-custody accommodation

Percent of prison leavers in settled accommodation three months after release

The proportion of prison leavers who were in settled accommodation three months after release (excluding cases out of scope or where the status was unknown) decreased by 2.1 percentage points from 75.6% to 73.5% between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Settled accommodation rates have remained above 70%, while operating within a challenging housing market.

2020-21 is the earliest year for which we have data of sufficient quality to report.

Post-custody treatment

Percent 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 increased by 5.2 percentage points from 37.4% to 42.6% between 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Data for the financial year 2023-24 will be available in the next publication in December 2024.

Priority outcome 3: Deliver swift access to justice

This year we have continued our focus on helping our courts and tribunals to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. We have also continued work to improve the rights of victims and address violence against women and girls, as well as undertaking vital work to modernise the justice system.

Crown Court outstanding caseload

Maximising the capacity of our courts and enhancing our ability to hear cases is critical to reduce the outstanding caseload. To support our focus on increasing capacity, we have:

• sat over 107,000 Crown Court sitting days in 2023-24
• increased the capital budget for the court and tribunal estate, with £220 million being provided for maintenance and major projects across 2023-24 and 2024-25
• introduced operational initiatives to maximise capacity, including remote hearings^{[footnote 24]}
• recruited into around 1,000 judicial posts across all jurisdictions

Children in the justice system

To help to reduce caseloads in the family courts and ensure fewer children are subject to court proceedings, we announced significant investment to help separating parents resolve their issues earlier and more amicably, including:

• strengthening the court rules on the pre-court process and developing a new online information and guidance tool to encourage early resolution
• extending the pathfinder court approach to family courts in Birmingham and South-East Wales
• continuing the family mediation voucher scheme, which has so far helped more than 27,000 separating parents to access mediation on 31 March 2024

Tackling violence against women and girls

We have continued to make significant progress on delivering the milestones of the Rape Review Action Plan. We are exceeding all three Rape Review ambitions ahead of schedule, increasing police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service, Crown Prosecution Service charges and Crown Court receipts for adult rape to 2016 levels. The number of adult rape prosecutions continues to increase, rising 44% in the latest year.

We are also providing vital assistance to individuals affected by rape and sexual abuse. The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, launched in December 2022, has facilitated 56,000 calls and 20,000 webchats, ensuring victims have access to specially trained operators round the clock. ^{[footnote 25]}

Victims

We have continued to work to improve the experience of victims in the criminal justice system, ensuring they have timely access to the right support when they need it. The Victims and Prisoners Act was granted Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, enhancing victim support. ^{[footnote 26]} Other ongoing work to support victims includes:

• providing funding to recruit around 1,000 independent sexual violence advisors and independent domestic violence advisors to provide vital support for victims ^{[footnote 27]}
• funding frontline and specialist support projects for victims and survivors, including counselling, training and community outreach ^{[footnote 28]}

In 2023-24 we heard directly from victims about their experiences through independent research undertaken by those we have appointed to promote the interests of victims.

This includes:

• the Victims’ Commissioner’s survey (published in November 2023), which although based on a small sample of around 500 victims, highlighted the need for further improvements to build confidence in the effectiveness of the criminal justice system ^{[footnote 29]}
• a survey by the independent advisor to the Rape Review, involving around 2,000 victims, which underscores the significance of access to support services for sexual violence victims and the need to inform victims about these support services to enable informed decisions about their use ^{[footnote 30]}

To hear from more victims directly about their criminal justice system experience in 2024‑25, we will review the outcome of a feasibility study which looked at whether a single cross-system mechanism could routinely collect victim feedback.

Widening access to legal aid

We are making progress with our comprehensive and wide-ranging review of legal aid. Following the closure of our public call for evidence in February 2024, we finished the evidence-building stage at the end of May 2024. In parallel, we are broadening access to legal aid, including:

• launching the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service, providing free legal advice to anyone at risk of losing their home
• publishing the Government Response to the Legal Aid Means Test Review in May 2023, aiming to create a fairer system that targets legal aid to those who need it most

Modernising services

The HMCTS reform programme has made significant progress by: ^{[footnote 31]}

• launching end-to-end digital services in areas such as immigration and asylum, and in the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal for those appealing benefits decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs
• completing roll-out of the new Common Platform case management system in all criminal courts in England and Wales in summer 2023
• having our reform services used over 2.4 million times and using the insights to make informed decisions for future improvements

With the Master of the Rolls, we also established the Online Procedure Rule Committee. This will develop rules to support greater use of non-court-based dispute resolution where appropriate in the civil and family jurisdictions and the tribunals. ^{[footnote 32]}

Our performance metrics

Crown Court disposals

Number of cases disposed of in Crown Court.

At the time of publishing this report, the release of the latest statistics in June 2024 had been postponed by HMCTS for further quality assurance as a result of concerns about the quality of data inputs. This was in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. As a result, HMCTS is providing a link to the latest available data instead of a graphical representation.^{[footnote 33]}

In 2023-24, we sat the highest number of Crown Court days since 2016-17. Despite the additional days, the open caseload has continued to remain at a high level. Challenges continue, especially given the continued deterioration of the early guilty plea rate, as well as availability of sufficiently experienced legal professionals.

Magistrates’ courts disposals

Disposal volumes - in magistrates’ courts

At the time of publishing this report, the release of the latest statistics in June 2024 had been postponed by HMCTS for further quality assurance as a result of concerns about the quality of data inputs. This was in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. As a result, HMCTS is providing a link to the latest available data instead of a graphical representation.^{[footnote 33]}

The average timeliness from charge to disposal has remained stable between 9 and 10 weeks since April 2022. The total work received by the magistrates’ courts has been higher than expected. Disposals have also been higher than expected, but not to the same level, so the open caseload has steadily grown.

Family court disposals (public law)

Number of cases disposed of in public law family courts.

The volume of disposals (completed cases) in family public law increased by 1%, from 16,150 to 16,310 between 2022-23 and 2023-24. The average waiting for public law cases has improved to 38 weeks. However, disposals were lower than planned, reflecting lower than planned sitting days in this jurisdiction. We have also improved our digital systems for family public law services.

Family court disposals (private law)

Number of cases disposed of in private law family courts.

The volume of disposals (completed cases) in family private law have increased by 1.9% from 43,610 to 44,427 between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Open caseload and waiting times have reduced, which reflects higher than planned sitting days. Work continues to deliver a range of pilots to improve timeliness by increasing efficiency in the system and ensuring cases are ready to be heard when they reach court.

Employment tribunal disposals ( single claims )

Number of cases disposed of in employment tribunals.

The volume of disposals (completed cases) in employment tribunals single claims decreased by 5%, from 32,273 to 30,705, between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Disposals over the year were lower than planned, driven by fewer sitting days than expected from salaried judges. These new judges have a period of onboarding and training which has reduced disposal rates, alongside some judges starting their appointments a little later than anticipated. We increased the hearing capacity through the judicial-led ‘virtual region’, enabling fee-paid judiciary to hear suitable cases remotely.

Employment tribunals transitioned to a new employment case management database 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.

Victim’s Code

Victim’s awareness of the Victim’s Code

Data is not available for years ending March 2021 and March 2022 as the question behind this metric was removed from the Crime Survey for England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for the years ending March 2023 and March 2024 have not been published by the Office for National Statistics.

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

MoJ continues to ensure we have a strong, high‑skilled and appropriately resourced workforce across the country. We are doing this by:

• exceeding our 2027 national Places for Growth targets by moving 2,300 roles outside of London and making progress against our location-specific targets
• adopting a national recruitment approach for eligible senior civil servant roles, to support achieving 50% of senior civil servant roles based outside of London by 2030
• growing our national office network with larger regional justice collaboration centres and smaller supporting justice satellite offices within our own estate from 29 to 40 locations at March 2023, driving greater efficiency, broadening our talent pool and offering opportunities nationally

Innovation, technology, data

We continue to grow our internal digital capability, transforming people’s experience of interacting with the justice system by creating simpler, faster, secure and better services.

We are achieving this by:

• appointing a new director general for the Service Transformation Group who is leading service transformation, modernising legacy systems and co-ordinating MoJ’s digital transformation strategy ^{[footnote 34]}
• delivering a service modernisation strategy in partnership with the LAA, CICA and OPG, outlining how digital and technology will support improved experiences to our users, the modernisation of these agencies and the department
• upgrading the digital services within HMCTS – removing all software applications hosted in legacy data centres by the end of July 2024
• upgrading the digital services within HMPPS, including 60,000 in-cell phones across 93 prisons, the roll-out of the Calculate a Release Date Service, and a resettlement passport for community reintegration – the new digital prison system, which is going to replace NOMIS (the National Offender Management Information System), now handles 60% of tasks, improving productivity and safety ^{[footnote 35]}
• designing, delivering and maintaining sustainable and efficient technology infrastructure and workplace technology services
• improving tools and connectivity across all MoJ locations
• improving mobile and office telephony services, security operations and service desk functions
• stabilising and modernising legacy systems to mitigate security, data, capability and support risks – the overall outcome being fewer red-rated legacy IT systems under the Central Digital and Data Office’s legacy IT framework and less technology debt ^{[footnote 36]}

The Evolve portfolio continues to improve and modernise service delivery, balancing in-house and outsourced IT contracts. We have re-procured three core technology contracts, we have implemented Wi-Fi services in over 300 Probation Service offices, and are transitioning to a new contact centre service.

We are building capability to manage more services in-house and procuring a new generation of technology service contracts that will support modern, high-quality, resilient services to provide better outcomes for users.

We have made significant progress in data-linking with the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme. ^{[footnote 37]} This is providing new insights and streamlining processes. We are:

• implementing a pilot tool for automating probation data in North Essex, consolidating offender information into a single dashboard to improve service delivery
• publishing new evidence on drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide, linking the UK Home Office Homicide Index with Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and Department of Health and Social Care substance misuse treatment data ^{[footnote 38]}
• embedding Splink, an open-source data matching library used across government to link data assets system-wide, which analysts from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, MoJ, and Welsh Government use to unlock new insights^{[footnote 39]}

The new MoJ Data Board aligns department-wide data initiatives, linking court data for insights into victim attrition, improving service efficiency through advanced analysis. A new Artificial Intelligence Steering Group has been established to oversee initiatives using artificial intelligence and to ensure responsible and safe use within the department.

We are rolling out GovAssure, the assessment framework for IT services, focusing on assessing our business-critical services.

We continue to support innovation by ensuring security, information management and privacy requirements are built into services by design and default.

Delivery, evaluation, collaboration

MoJ is enhancing public service efficiency through collaboration and professional development.

We have committed to eight reviews in the 2023-2025 Public Bodies Review Programmes, publishing reviews for CICA and the Independent Monitoring Authority in 2023-24. ^{[footnote 40]} ,^{[footnote 41]} Reviews for HMPPS, Cafcass and OPG are ongoing.

We are continuing our programmes to update arm’s length bodies’ framework documents. Six have been updated and are either published or awaiting publication, and the remaining framework documents are in the final stages of drafting and approvals.

We are promoting a culture of learning and driving innovation through an evidence-based approach to our prison design and operations. Since spring 2023, our Evaluation and Prototyping Hub has successfully facilitated over 20 evaluations and rapidly tested ideas within prison projects, which has improved the new prisons programme.

Additionally, the hub collaborates actively with academic scholars and external specialists to explore the impact of new prison environments on inmate wellbeing. Data literacy has also been a focus, with 50% of MoJ HQ staff signing up to One Big Thing in 2023 to improve data skills. ^{[footnote 42]}

As of the last quarter of 2023-24, the department is delivering 21 major projects and programmes on the Government Major Projects Portfolio, which cover:

• infrastructure and construction projects, primarily to deliver the commitment of 20,000 additional prison places
• service transformation programmes, such as court reform and electronic monitoring expansion
• critical rehabilitation programmes, such as the Prisoner Education Service and probation workforce reform
• re-procurement of operational and enabling services, including IT services across MoJ

The in-year expenditure for the financial year 2023-24 for these 21 major projects and programmes was approximately £1.6 billion. There has been a reduction of six major projects and programmes compared with the last quarter of 2022-23 following closure. A major project successfully completed during 2023-24 is the 1,700-place new prison HMP Fosse Way, which won ‘Infrastructure Project of the Year’ at the Government Project Delivery Awards 2024.

Sustainability

MoJ is embedding sustainability in all operations, working towards net zero and the 2025 Greening Government Commitments. ^{[footnote 43]} , ^{[footnote 44]} We are:

• securing grants for decarbonisation projects at Bradford Courts and HMPs Featherstone and Prescoed – our project to remove oil-fired heating at HMP Eastwood Park is in progress
• designing our four new prisons (HMPs Millsike, Gartree, Grendon and Garth) to be net zero-ready
• publishing our Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy ^{[footnote 45]}

A revised MoJ Climate Change Adaptation Strategy has been published following evidence gathered through an organisation-wide climate change risk assessment of our estate and operations in 2022-23.^{[footnote 46]} Our research indicates overheating and flooding are significant risks. We are continuing to conduct flood risk assessments (26 conducted in 2023-24) for our most vulnerable sites and to understand overheating and assess suitable interventions to reduce these risks. We have completed eight overheating studies across prison estates, resulting in heatwave guidance for prisons.

MoJ has published its Nature Recovery Plan setting out nine principles to restore biodiversity across our estate and to benefit our people. ^{[footnote 47]} Site‑specific Ecological Management Plans have been developed for the majority of our estate and a Biodiversity in Construction Policy has also been developed.

Our performance metrics

People survey engagement score

Average engagement score (%).

The engagement score has risen slightly to around 61% from 2022-23 to 2023-24.

Representation of female staff

Percentage of staff who are female.

Representation of female staff in MoJ has remained steady at 57.7% in 2023-24 compared to 57.9% in 2022-23. Representation of female staff in post remains above the Civil Service target of 50% gender parity, across MoJ and its executive agencies. While these are positive results, within the department and its agencies, there are some grades and staff groups where there remains work to do to improve the representation of female staff. 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 and the MoJ Inclusion Council.

Representation of ethnic minority staff

Percentage of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Representation of ethnic minority staff in MoJ has steadily increased to 16.9% in 2023-24 from 14% in 2019-20. There is a strategic programme of work across MoJ to improve the attraction, retention and development of ethnic minority staff. Representation is monitored and the actions are overseen by the MoJ Race Action Committee and the MoJ Inclusion Council.

Representation of disabled staff

Percentage of staff who are declared disabled.

Representation of disabled staff in MoJ has increased to 17.4% in 2023-24 from 13.9% in 2019‑20. 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. Representation is monitored and the actions overseen by the MoJ Inclusion Council.

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 electricity grid decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures taken across our estate.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

MoJ shares responsibility with other government departments for supporting delivery of the UK’s commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).^{[footnote 48]} The table describes our contributions.

SDG	MoJ’s priority outcomes (contributing to SDG)	MoJ activity in 2023-24
SDG 3 – Good health and wellbeing Target: 3.5 - Substance abuse	Reduce reoffending • Substance misuse	Piloting intensive supervision courts and increasing the number of prisons with an Incentivised Substance-Free Living Unit from 50 in 2022‑23 to 80. We have recruited the first 36 of a planned 50 staff to co-ordinate prison activity on drugs and have completed recruitment of over 50 staff to support continuity of care post-release.
SDG 4 – Quality education Targets: 4.4 – Youth and adult skills 4.6 – Literacy and numeracy 4a – Education facilities	Reduce reoffending • Education	The Youth Custody Service (YCS) has delivered monthly planning workshops across all sites with subject specialists to support in English and maths. This has resulted in schemes of learning, lesson plans and assessment points across sites. Reading and a lack of reading support have been identified through both YCS assurance and recent Ofsted findings. Our providers are using a reading screener and the YCS has released the Reading Roadmap to guide sites in developing a wider reading curriculum. We have also worked with the Shannon Trust to develop a programme of support suitable for the youth estate. We have invested in new roles such as heads of education, skills and work to strengthen educational leadership in prisons, and support governors to improve their curriculum. There are neurodiversity support managers in every prison to improve support for prisoners with additional needs to access education, skills and work opportunities, both in prison and in preparation for release. The Prison Education Framework incentivises achievement at maths and English. The percentage of prisoners who make at least one level of progress in English and/or maths during their time in custody increased from 6.9% to 8.2% between 2022‑23 and 2023‑24.
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 have implemented commitments in the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan. This provides support to women in the criminal justice system to improve their rehabilitative outcomes, ensuring they have access to the right support when they need it. [footnote 50] We published the latest Rape Review progress report in February 2024. [footnote 51] We have exceeded all three Rape Review ambitions ahead of schedule, increasing police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service, Crown Prosecution Service charges and Crown Court receipts for adult rape to 2016 levels. This means we have doubled Crown Court receipts since the review was commissioned in 2019. The number of adult rape prosecutions also continues to increase, rising 44% in the latest year. The Victims and Prisoners Act gained Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. [footnote 52] It was introduced to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system and drive up public confidence in the process. This will introduce a joint statutory duty on police and crime commissioners, integrated care boards and local authorities to work together when commissioning support services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and other serious violence. The Act will also require government to issue guidance about victim support roles listed in regulations. We are quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024-25, up from £41 million in 2009-10. This includes additional ring-fenced funding to increase the number of independent sexual and domestic violence advisors to 1,000 by 2024‑25. Specifically for victims of violence against women and girls, MoJ and Home Office have committed up to £5.9 million of ring-fenced funding for ‘by and for’ services over three years to March 2025. We have continued to prepare for the launch of Domestic Abuse Order pilots. [footnote 53] These orders are intended to provide protection to victims from all forms of domestic abuse, and will be available in the family, criminal and civil courts.
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	We have increased the percentage of prison leavers in employment six months after release from 14% to over 30% over two years. To do this in 93 prisons, including all resettlement prisons, we have: • rolled out prison employment leads, who match prisoners to jobs on release • set up Employment Hubs, which are physical spaces where prisoners can access job vacancies and support with applications • helped prison leavers to arrange a bank account and right to work ID, find accommodation and claim out of work benefits • set up employment advisory boards, chaired by business leaders, which advise prisons on the skills they deliver to align these with labour market demand
SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities Target: 10.2 – Empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all	Workforce, skills, location	In December 2023 we published our pay gap report, setting out updates and actions that we will continue to progress in 2024. [footnote 54] This year the department achieved the Carer Confident re-accreditation and retained the Disability Confident Leader status. We have also moved to an exclusively in-year reward and recognition system for delegated grades across MoJ Group, with HMPPS implementing this in a new performance management process. We will continue to monitor for diversity and inclusion outcomes. Over the next year we will build on our progress by: • continuing the transformation of our people policies so that they are inclusive and consistent across the department •developing line manager skills, knowledge and behaviours using our People Manager Handbook and associated learning opportunities • working in partnership with internal stakeholders to understand staff experiences and to help the organisation improve and/or promote policy, guidance and support available for all staff and managers in the workplace Judicial diversity is a priority for MoJ. We work closely with the members of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), which includes the judiciary, Judicial Appointments Commission, legal professions, and the Legal Services Board. The JDF identifies, supports and, where appropriate, works collaboratively on activities to improve judicial diversity. The forum’s 2024 action plan was published in January 2024. [footnote 55] It includes a wide range of actions that JDF members have committed to delivering, both individually and collectively. The updated magistrates’ recruitment process and our inclusive marketing strategy targets a wider, more diverse audience and aims to attract applicants from under-represented groups. We publish comprehensive data on recruitment and diversity in the annual combined diversity of the judiciary statistics. [^56}
SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production Targets: 12.5 – Reduce waste 12.6 – Companies adopting sustainable practices 12.7 – Sustainable public procurement practices	Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons Building sustainable prisons	MoJ launched a Circular Economy and Waste Management Strategy in 2023-24 to develop a circular economy within prison industries and to improve waste management practices and waste governance. The central objective of the strategy is to develop circular economy opportunities, which has seen the piloting and expansion of various prison industry waste reuse, refurbishment and remanufacturing projects. MoJ has a range of strategies and policies to support sustainability outcomes in relevant procurements, including a Sustainable Construction BREEAM Policy and our Sustainable Procurement Policy. The Prison Capacity Sub Portfolio contracts contain stretching energy and carbon reduction targets, including our new prisons which will be all-electric. This eliminates the need for gas boilers, meaning they will produce no operational carbon emissions when the National Grid fully decarbonises. [footnote 57]
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 have developed our operational resilience to the changing climate by refreshing our Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. [footnote 58] We have also taken action on our flood and overheating risks, including: • conducting 26 flood risk assessments across our highest risk sites • completing eight overheating studies in different MoJ asset architypes - developing heatwave guidance for prisons
SDG 15 – Life on land Target: 15.5 – Reduce the degradation of natural habitats and loss of biodiversity	Reduce reoffending - Training, skills and work Sustainability	Nine tree nurseries grow 200,000 saplings across the custodial estate. The nurseries provide meaningful work, training and skills, including horticultural qualifications, helping to rehabilitate offenders while also providing an employment pathway into the green economy sector on their release. Our community payback team launched a partnership with Forestry England, where offenders are learning new skills while repaying their communities and delivering local nature improvements. Work includes coppicing, invasive species removal, pond maintenance, sapling care and woodland thinning. We have drafted Ecological Management Plans for the prison estate and launched a new Biodiversity in Construction Policy, which sits alongside our Nature Recovery Plan. [footnote 59] Together, this mitigates nature depletion, and enables nature recovery and prison expansion.
SDG 16 – Peace, justice, and strong institutions Targets: 16.1 – Reduce violence 16.3 – Promote the rule of law 16.B – Strengthen national institutions	Reduce reoffending Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons Deliver swift access to justice	MoJ has improved security in prisons through the £100 million security investment programme by clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that contribute to prisoner debt, crime and violence. Prison safety statistics are published quarterly and are available online. [footnote 60] MoJ has promoted the rule of law in the legislature and in wider professional arenas, and has promoted public understanding of the role of judges and the importance of their impartiality and independence to democracy. Internationally, UK ministers have addressed international partners on the importance of upholding the rule of law, alongside contributing to the development and implementation of laws to support swift access to justice. This includes representation at the G7 summit in Tokyo, the Council of Europe Justice Ministers meeting in Riga, and the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Zanzibar. [footnote 61] Investment in judicial recruitment meant that around 1,000 judges and tribunal members posts were recruited into in 2023-24 to meet the demands on the courts in England and Wales and UK tribunals. We appointed 2,029 new magistrates in 2023‑24, resulting in a total of 14,576 magistrates in England and Wales. We are aiming to recruit similar numbers in future years. Data on recruitment and diversity is published in the annual combined diversity of the judiciary statistics. [footnote 62]

Climate change and sustainability

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

Sustainability is a strategic enabler in our Outcome Delivery Plan, supporting the department’s strategic outcomes. Areas of focus include:

• tackling climate change
• using resources sustainably
• protecting and enhancing the environment
• embedding sustainability across the organisation
• maximising opportunities to deliver justice outcomes that also support delivery of government’s Environmental Improvement Plan

MoJ’s Climate Change and Sustainability Unit co-ordinates strategy, policy, governance, risk and assurance of climate change and sustainability activities, providing expert advice to functions and agencies. Strategic oversight is provided by MoJ’s Senior Sustainability Board.

Scope and data quality

This information is prepared in accordance with HM Treasury’s sustainability reporting guidance 2023-24.^{[footnote 63]}

MoJ reports on all its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, subject to any agreed exemptions. MoJ is unable to report data from locations where property owners are not obliged to provide it. Where necessary, some data has been estimated.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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

Embedding sustainability

MoJ’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy sets out how the department embeds environmental sustainability throughout its estate, operations and procurement activity.^{[footnote 64]}

Sustainability Action Plans have been agreed with executive agencies and functions to identify actions to drive improvements across our estate. These are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect progress and highlight new opportunities for improving our environmental performance. Arm’s length bodies are also engaged on greening government through MoJ’s arm’s length body Centre of Excellence.

Greening Government Commitments performance

MoJ tracks its progress against the Greening Government Commitment (GGC) targets for the period 2021 to 2025 on a quarterly basis. This report shows our present position for 2023-24 against a 2017-18 baseline, using data available to December 2023 due to the timing of this report. The non-financial indicators for 2022-23 have been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023.

Greening Government Commitments progress

During 2023-24 we have:

• continued to install LED lighting and boiler efficiency controls, increase solar power generation capability, and commence a heat decarbonisation scheme (removing oil boilers) at a number of our prisons
• implemented actions in MoJ’s Nature Recovery Plan, created Ecological Management Plans for 95% of our land outside the wire to increase biodiversity, and developed the new Biodiversity in Construction Policy
• continued to embed sustainability in community payback projects such as tree planting, nature reserve management litter picking and tree planting in local communities
• incorporated 10% biodiversity net gain and net zero-ready principles in our new prisons programme
• fixed 14 water leaks throughout 2023-24, avoiding £3.8 million in water costs

Moving forward, we will:

• continue to develop projects that deliver both improved offender outcomes and environmental recovery, such as through our tree nurseries in prisons and unpaid work partnerships with organisations like Forestry England
• continue our circular economy pilots on the prison estate to support resource efficiency
• manage our land in a nature-positive way through improved land management and through our facilities management contracts

Tackling climate change: Mitigating emissions and adapting to the changing climate

Climate change is having an increased impact across our estate and operations, principally through overheating during heatwaves and flooding from increased rainfall. MoJ recognises the need to move towards net zero while also being more resilient to climate change and has taken an active approach to addressing these challenges.

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure-aligned disclosure compliance statement

The climate-related financial disclosure contained within this annual report and accounts is consistent with HM Treasury’s UK public sector Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure-aligned disclosure guidance. In line with the central government timetable, this annual report and accounts complies with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure’s recommended disclosures for 2023-24 around: 

• governance – recommended disclosures (a) board’s oversight and (b) management’s role
• metrics and targets – recommended disclosure (b) emissions reporting

For a detailed overview of our climate-related risks and opportunities, governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, see MoJ’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure-aligned disclosure 2023-24. 

Overall GGC performance 2023-24 (against the updated 2017-18 baseline) ^{[footnote 65]}

Requirement by 2025	2023-24 performance	RAG status	Commentary
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41%	-28%	Not on track	Prison expansion and backlog maintenance has hampered progress. MoJ’s Net Zero Strategy describes our organisational priorities for decarbonisation.
Reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions by 23%	-10%	Not on track	Financial constraints and electrical capacity constraints mean that achieving the target continues to be challenging. Heat decarbonisation plans have been completed for prioritised prison and probation sites, and funding has been obtained to progress decarbonisation works at some sites.
Reduce emissions from domestic business flights by 30%	-82%	On track	Domestic air travel continues to remain significantly below 2017-18 levels.
Reduce overall waste by 15%	-15%	On track	MoJ is piloting recycling and refurbishment schemes within prisons to save money and reduce waste, and shaping future facilities management contracts to improve waste management.
Landfill waste to be less than 5%	4%	On track	Prioritising waste diversion from landfill through facilities management contracts.
Increase recycling to at least 70%	50%	Not on track	Piloting recycling and refurbishment schemes at prisons, and shaping future facilities management contracts to improve waste management.
Reduce paper use by 50%	-49%	Not on track	Although many processes are still paper-based, services are increasingly moving online to increase accessibility, efficiency and paper use – for example, online processing of simple cases saves 185 million sheets of paper annually.
Reduce water consumption by at least 8%	+5%	Not on track	Challenges include prison expansion, and leaks and burst pipes due to ageing infrastructure on our existing estate. Smart meter installation continues to help identify and subsequently fix water leaks.

Climate governance

Board oversight of climate-related risks

MoJ appointed a ministerial champion and non‑executive director champion for climate change and sustainability matters. Both individuals attend the MoJ Departmental Board. The board is responsible for setting strategic direction and reviewing delivery against the MoJ Outcome Delivery Plan, which includes climate change and sustainability objectives.

Climate change and sustainability risks were escalated to a principal risk in 2022. Our Audit and Risk Assurance Committee receives quarterly updates on MoJ’s climate and sustainability transition risks, trends and control effectiveness.

For 2024-25 we are improving oversight of climate-related matters. We are introducing an annual board update and biannual Audit and Risk Assurance Committee update on climate-related MoJ risks and opportunities.

Management’s role in assessing and managing climate-related risks

MoJ has also appointed an Executive Committee champion and a Chief Sustainability Officer for climate change and sustainability matters.

MoJ climate change and sustainability transition and risk management is co-ordinated by our Climate Change and Sustainability Unit, while strategy, performance and risk is overseen by our Senior Sustainability Board. The board meets quarterly and is made up of representatives from our C-suite officers, functional directors, profession directors and agency directors. The board is supported by net zero transition and climate adaptation sub-groups.

Our climate change and sustainability risks and performance are reviewed quarterly by our Finance, Performance and Risk Committee. Major programmes and projects are scrutinised by our Investment Committee.

The Project Delivery Function supports this committee by managing the MoJ assurance keyholder review process for programme and major project business cases, within which climate and sustainability is a keyholder. All business cases with expenditure above £10 million are screened for their climate change impacts.

Mitigating climate change: Decarbonisation

MoJ’s Net Zero Strategy has been published and sets out a long-term vision for the department and its agencies to reach decarbonisation pathway targets.

MoJ carbon emissions show an overall 28% decrease compared to the 2017-18 baseline. We have continued to manage our overall carbon emissions through a range of energy and carbon saving measures this financial year, including:

• securing £7 million Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding to decarbonise a number of prison and probation sites, which is expected to deliver an annual saving of 1,717 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) – these projects will be delivered over the coming two years
• installing 193 boiler control units at a number of prison sites, forecasted to save 1,015 tCO2e and an estimated £205,000 per year in financial savings
• upgrading lighting to LEDs through routine maintenance, using 64,000 purchased lights and over 14,000 LEDs manufactured in prisons
• funding LED upgrade projects within probation, forecasting to save 194 tCO2e
• developing decarbonisation studies at eight sites to inform future capital funding proposals
• delivering low carbon heating upgrades at a prison, forecasted to save 672 tCO2e
• putting net zero at the heart of new prison design by recognising that what we build now will still be in use by 2050

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. The MoJ fleet currently comprises 67% ultra-low emission vehicles and 4.9% zero emission vehicles against a UK government target of 100% by December 2027.

Climate change metrics and targets – emissions reporting

Table 1: Overall greenhouse gas emissions and financial costs 2023-24

Greenhouse gasemissions from buildings and travel		2017-18 Baseline [footnote 66]	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23 restated [footnote 67]	2023-24
Non-financial) indicators (tCO2e )[footnote 68]	Total gross scope 1 (direct) greenhouse gas emission	189,874	185,407	182,242	170,888	184,533	172,209	173,406
	Total gross scope 2 (energy indirect) greenhouse gas emissions	166,976	126,714	111,393	92,097	90,193	84,345	89,581
	Total gross scope 3 (official business travel) emissions	13,546	22,938	21,496	11,491	9,123	8,905	7,653
	Total emissions	370,369	335,059	315,131	274,476	283,849	265,459	270,641
Non-financial indicators (MWh)	Electricity	474,376	447,642	435,812	395,044	424,779	435,782	434,727
	Electricity: renewable on site [footnote 69]	28,605	Data not available	Data not available	Data not available	463	907	1,617
	Gas	924,849	876,973	837,642	816,750	881,873	810,484	801,892
	Other energy sources	38,984	43,114	47,143	42,689	47,500	82,381	70,867
	Total energy	1,438,237	1,367,729	1,320.597	1,254,483	1,354,615	1,329,554	1,309,104
Financial indicators (£m)	Energy	92	92	111	97	103	148	183
	Carbon reduction scheme	7	6	6	0	0	0	0
	Official business travel	24	28	29	5	10	26	27
	Total: energy and business travel	123	126	146	102	113	174	210

Travel and emissions^{[footnote 70]}

Flight-related emissions have remained low since the pandemic restrictions, and emissions from domestic flights have reduced by 82%, compared to our 2017-18 baseline.

Table 2: International and domestic business travel distance and greenhouse gas emissions 2023-24

Air travel	2017-18 restated [footnote 71]	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23 restated [footnote 72]	2023-24
Domestic flights (km)	1,905,878	1,838,087	1,499,117	64,326	255,017	521,783	336,832
Domestic flights emissions (tCO2e)	270	290	202	8	33	68	48
International business flights (km)	3,387,593	3,609,624	4,739,114	3,382,713	3,669,534	4,131,216	2,016,712
Short haul economy class	1,255,551	None held	None held	None held	1,868,392	1,167,586	764,914
Short haul business class	58,527	None held	None held	None held	6,643	24,933	None held
Long haul economy class	1,252,533	None held	None held	None held	876,294	1,294,499	903,172
Long haul premium economy	329,097	None held	None held	None held	507,834	663,919	222,119
Long haul business class	491,885	None held	None held	None held	410,371	980,279	126,506
International business flights (tCO2e)	372	375	463	311	383	504	238

MoJ is reviewing organisation-wide travel policies to make more sustainable travel options preferable to air and single-occupancy vehicle travel.

Adapting to the changing climate

MoJ has published a revised Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, following a climate change risk assessment of our estate and operations in 2022-23. Our research indicates overheating and flooding are significant risks. We are continuing to conduct flood risk assessments (26 conducted in 2023-24) for our most vulnerable sites. We are also improving understanding of overheating in our buildings, as well as assessing suitable interventions to reduce these risks. ^{[footnote 73]}

The government’s third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) identifies a specific risk to prison services, and we have developed a NAP3 risk reduction pathway which includes actions to: ^{[footnote 74]}

• conduct an updated climate change risk assessment by 2027
• design and build new prisons targeting BREEAM excellent standards as a minimum
• address research gaps and pilot operational interventions to reduce the risk of prison service delivery failure

Climate change plans for 2024-25

We will:

• aim to cut new prison operational carbon emissions by at least 85% compared to HMP Fosse Way
• deliver the commitments set out in our NAP3 risk reduction pathway
• develop a Net Zero Delivery Plan

Reducing water use

Water is one of our most precious resources, and as an organisation we are committed to reducing our consumption wherever possible. We have developed a Water Efficiency Strategy to support this.

Our water usage has increased by 5% compared to 2017-18. This is due to prison expansion, and leaks and burst pipes due to ageing infrastructure on our existing estate.

We have invested £340,000 installing 290 smart water meters across the HMPPS estate. Smart meter data has enabled identification and repair of leaks more quickly.

Table 3: Water consumption and financial costs 2023-24

Water		2017-18 restated [footnote 75]	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23 restated [footnote 76]	2023-24
Non-financial indicators	Total water consumption (m3 000)	9,503	8,917	8,940	9,137	9,402	9,645	9,994
Financial indicators	Total water supply costs (£’m)	26	27	29	24	23	28	31

Minimising waste and promoting resource efficiency

Table 4: Waste generation 2023-24

Waste – non‑financial indicators (tonnes)	2017‑18 baseline [footnote 77]	2018‑19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23 restated [footnote 78]	2023-24
Landfill	6,797	1,323	1,355	4,922	3,615	2,984	1,771
Recycled/reused (total)	25,863	41,666	42,113	33,169	25,074	19,683	21,451
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (electrical and ICT)	255	n/a	n/a	n/a	282	297	613
Food waste	2,109	n/a	n/a	n/a	4,836	1,184	879
Incinerated with energy from waste	16,037	6,862	9,102	6,989	16,496	15,555	17,810
Incinerated without energy recovery	21	0	11	14	1	724	492
Total waste	51,082	49,851	52,581	45,094	45,186	40,427	43,016
Financial indicators (£m)	-	-	-	-	-	2.7	-

MoJ has reduced its waste by around 15% compared to the 2017-18 baseline, of which 4% went to landfill and 50% was recycled.

A Circular Economy Strategy has been published and several pilot recycle and repair workshops across the prison estate have been established, reducing waste and increasing recycling. ^{[footnote 79]}

Case study: Reducing reoffending through circular economy projects

Circular economy workshops in prisons support MoJ’s priority of reducing reoffending through providing meaningful, hands-on work for prisoners, while helping develop green skills to support them in finding jobs on release.

Since launching national electrical repair workshops at selected prisons, prisoners have repaired 8,200 TVs and 1,200 phones, saving 220,000kg in carbon emissions.

Paper use

MoJ has reduced paper use by 49% compared to the 2017-18 baseline. Better data is helping us to identify where most of our paper is being used and to help drive efficiencies. Digitalisation of some processes, including the use of prison ‘in-cell technology’, is also helping reduce paper use.

Single-use plastics

MoJ’s single-use plastics policy, published in January 2019, sets out our approach to reducing single-use plastics and only using them when no viable alternative is available. ^{[footnote 80]}

Biodiversity and nature recovery

MoJ has a Nature Recovery Plan setting out nine principles to restore biodiversity in our estate and benefit our people. ^{[footnote 81]} Ecological Management Plans were developed for most of our landholdings, detailing site-specific actions for our land managers to implement. Considerable support has been provided to the property transformation programme to ensure that spatial data is accurately captured in the new total facilities management requirements. We have developed a Biodiversity in Construction Policy and wildlife assessment check tool to drive best practice across our expansion and refurbishment projects. Nine HMPPS tree nurseries are aiming to grow 200,000 saplings a year for use on MoJ land and other public bodies, while also contributing to prisoner education.

Case study: Reducing reoffending through community payback projects

In 2023, MoJ and HMPPS launched a national partnership between the Probation Service and Forestry England, where people on probation work on Forestry England projects and receive training while completing their community payback.

Since the partnership launched, hundreds of people on probation have completed community service at Forestry England sites, through taking part in activities including cutting back brambles, litter picking, repairing pathways, and tree planting.

Procuring sustainable products and services

MoJ educates, engages and embeds sustainability across our commercial function while considering the operational environment and whole-life value for money. Focused sustainability support is prioritised for contracts that have the greatest opportunities to embed positive environmental outcomes. An assessment tool is in development to identify contracts with potential for sustainability impact and risk. This tool will allow us to prioritise resources and develop additional guidance across relevant procurement categories.

MoJ has continued to develop a clearer understanding of the link between sustainability outcomes and our major contracts, such as prison operators’ contracts and the prison food contracts.

The prison food contract ensures that 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.

Training is regularly provided on policies such as PPN 01/24 Carbon Reduction Schedule. All commercial staff must complete the annual ethical sourcing assessment which includes a module on environmentally sustainable procurement. Commercial activity is guided by our Sustainable Procurement Policy that sets out our minimum environmental sustainability standards.

The MoJ project assurance process means most business cases that have a whole-life cost exceeding £10 million are assessed by a panel of specialists across MoJ, including sustainability experts. Government Buying Standards are applied where applicable.

MoJ seeks to achieve social value from all relevant procurements. Decarbonisation, increasing biodiversity, improving air quality and reducing supply chain waste can all be achieved through the ‘fighting climate change’ theme of the Social Value Model.

Modern slavery

Policy Procurement Note 02/23: Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains sets out the actions government departments must take to manage the risk of modern slavery in procurements and contracts. It is applicable to existing contracts and new procurement activity from 1 April 2023. All commercial staff must complete a high-level modern slavery risk assessment prior to commencing any new procurement. Commercial teams may use intelligence, tools or resources to help inform their assessment of the market and to determine the modern slavery risk of the procurement. A comprehensive modern slavery training programme and guidance pack was delivered across commercial teams in 2022 and this year an additional online resource will be made available for teams to support and build intelligence around modern slavery mitigation.

For procurements that are assessed as high risk, and where the Standard Selection Questionnaire is used, commercial teams will also be required to ask bidders for further information on their supply chains. At contract stage, procurements that are deemed high or medium risk of modern slavery are required to complete the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool, designed to help public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve protections and reduce the risks in their supply chains.

Reducing environmental impacts from ICT and digital

MoJ has adopted the Greening Government: ICT and Digital Services Strategy and associated targets. Through our digitalisation and ICT programmes and projects, we are reducing our environmental impacts such as paper use and travel emissions. We report ICT emissions to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on an annual basis and are working on improving data through better internal reporting and tracking.

Prison workshops are recycling laptops and printers, reducing waste to landfill and giving offenders skills and qualifications. Old printers are now dismantled in prison workshops (previously recycled in Amsterdam) and all parts are recycled, reducing emissions. Offenders are being trained in plastic identification for reuse in other projects, aiding the circular economy. This project is so successful that our printer supplier is now sending printers from outside MoJ to prisons for dismantling.

Sustainable construction

Our BREEAM Policy requires all new build projects to target BREEAM outstanding (excellent as a minimum) and major refurbishments to target BREEAM excellent (very good as a minimum). We have also set out mandatory credits to ensure the BREEAM process drives the right outcomes and operational efficiencies. The new prisons programme, starting with HMP Millsike which is currently under construction, will be all-electric, using green technology such as photovoltaics and heat pumps to cut operational emissions by nearly 90% and deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain.

Case study: Protecting the public through building safe, secure and sustainable prisons

As part of MoJ’s priority to build safe, secure and sustainable prisons, we will open our first all-electric prison at HMP Millsike in 2025, which will be powered by solar panels and heat pump technology, and will use more efficient lighting systems.

HMP Millsike has received an interim BREEAM design certificate score of 87%, demonstrating efforts to embed sustainability throughout the design and build process. The new prison will also deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain, ahead of the legal requirement introduced in February 2024.

The prison is the third new prison being built under the government’s prison expansion programme, which aims to deliver 20,000 new prison spaces.

Dame Antonia Romeo DCB

Principal Accounting Officer

8 November 2024

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1. Statistics at MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/statistics ↩

2. As at 1 April 2024. ↩

3. Terrorism in Prisons: Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s Report and Government Response. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/terrorism-in-prisons-independent-reviewer-of-terrorism-legislations-report-and-government-response ↩

4. Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022 to 2025. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 ↩

5. Community Accommodation Service tier 3 (CAS3). Available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-accommodation-outcomes-update-to-march-2024/offender-accommodation-outcomes-statistical-summary#community-accommodation-service-tier-3-cas3 ↩

6. Press release: New Prison Education Service to cut crime. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/new-prison-education-service-to-cut-crime ↩

7. Justice Digital blog: Calculate Release Dates. Available at: mojdigital.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/06/calculate-release-dates ↩

8. Ministry of Justice: Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD). Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-better-outcomes-through-linked-data-bold ↩

9. Climate change adaptation strategy 2024: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-moj/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-2024-moj ↩

10. Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy ↩

11. Sustainable Construction: BREEAM Policy. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65116b0006e1ca000d616136/moj-breeam-policy.pdf ↩

12. Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022 to 2025. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 ↩

13. A review of health and social care in women’s prisons. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-review-of-health-and-social-care-in-womens-prisons ↩

14. Counter Terrorism Joint Inspection – National security division and multi-agency arrangements for the management of terrorist offenders in the wake of terrorist attacks. Available at: www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/07/Counter-Terrorism-joint-thematic-inspection-report-by-HM-Inspectorate-of-Probation-and-HMICFRS-and-HMIP.pdf ↩

15.   Electronic Monitoring Court Bail Protocol. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/electronic-monitoring-court-bail-protocol ↩

16. Sentencing Bill 2023. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/sentencing-bill-2023 ↩

17. Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. Available at: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3443 ↩

18. Proven reoffending statistics. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics ↩

19. Prisoners’ childhood and family backgrounds. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/prisoners-childhood-and-family-backgrounds ↩

20. Press release: End to Friday prison releases calls time on damaging race against the clock. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/end-to-friday-prison-releases-calls-time-on-damaging-race-against-the-clock ↩

21. A Response to: Thematic review – Weekends in prison. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64623d84427e41000cb4379d/Weekends_in_prison_Thematic_Action_Plan.pdf ↩

22. Press release: New Secure School to protect public and cut crime. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/new-secure-school-to-protect-public-and-cut-crime ↩

23. Turnaround programme. Available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/turnaround-programme ↩

24.   Inside HMCTS blog: Looking at the future of remote hearings. Available at: insidehmcts.blog.gov.uk/2024/01/25/looking-at-the-future-of-remote-hearings. See also: Fact sheet: Video hearings service. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmcts-reform-infrastructure-and-enabling-services-fact-sheets/fact-sheet-video-hearings-service ↩

25. Rape Review progress update. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65cb5cc2103de2000eb8f375/rape-review-progress-update.pdf ↩

26. Press release: Infected blood compensation body and Victims and Prisoners Bill become law. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/infected-blood-compensation-body-and-victims-and-prisoners-bill-become-law ↩

27. Rape Review progress update. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65cb5cc2103de2000eb8f375/rape-review-progress-update.pdf ↩

28. Funding boost for specialist victim support services. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/funding-boost-for-specialist-victim-support-services ↩

29. Victims’ Experience: Annual Survey 2022. Available at: cloud-platform-e218f50a4812967ba1215eaecede923f.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/6/2023/11/Victim-Survey-2022.pdf ↩

30. City Research Online: Rape and sexual assault survivors’ experience of the police in England and Wales. Available at: openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/31310 ↩

31. The HMCTS reform programme. Available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/the-hmcts-reform-programme ↩

32. New Online Procedure Rule Committee launched. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/new-online-procedure-rule-committee-launched ↩

33. Criminal court statistics. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics ↩ ↩²

34. Ministry of Justice Digital Strategy 2025. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-digital-strategy-2025/ministry-of-justice-digital-strategy-2025 ↩

35. Justice Digital blog: Calculate Release Dates. Available at: mojdigital.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/06/calculate-release-dates ↩

36. Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-the-legacy-it-risk-assessment-framework/guidance-on-the-legacy-it-risk-assessment-framework ↩

37. Ministry of Justice: Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD). Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-better-outcomes-through-linked-data-bold ↩

38. Drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/drug-and-alcohol-treatment-for-victims-and-suspects-of-homicide ↩

39. Data in government blog: Splink: Fast, accurate and scalable record linkage. Available at: dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/2022/09/23/splink-fast-accurate-and-scalable-record-linkage ↩

40. Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority: Review 2022 to 2023. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-injuries-compensation-authority-review-2022-to-2023 ↩

41. Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements: Review 2023 to 2024. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-monitoring-authority-for-the-citizens-rights-agreements-review-2023-to-2024 ↩

42. A Modern Civil Service blog: One Big Thing: data upskilling for all civil servants. Available at: moderncivilservice.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/19/one-big-thing-data-upskilling-for-all-civil-servants ↩

43. Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy ↩

44. Greening Government Commitments 2021 to 2025. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments-2021-to-2025 ↩

45. Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-sustainability-strategy-moj/climate-change-and-sustainability-strategy ↩

46. Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2024: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-moj ↩

47. Nature Recovery Plan summary: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-recovery-plan-summary-moj ↩

48. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: sdgs.un.org/goals ↩

49. Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022 to 2025. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 ↩

50. Rape Review progress report: Winter 2024. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/rape-review-progress-report-winter-2024 ↩

51. Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. Available at: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3443 ↩

52. Domestic Abuse Protection Notices / Orders factsheet. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/domestic-abuse-protection-notices-orders-factsheet ↩

53. Ministry of Justice gender pay gap report 2023. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-gender-pay-gap-report-2023/ministry-of-justice-gender-pay-gap-report-2023 ↩

54. Judicial Diversity Forum: Priorities and Actions for 2024. Available at: judicialappointments.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Judicial-Diversity-Forum-Priorities-and-Actions-for-2024.pdf ↩

55. Climate change and environmental sustainability: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/ministry-of-justice-climate-change-and-sustainability ↩

56. Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2024: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-moj/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-2024-moj ↩

57. Nature Recovery Plan summary. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-recovery-plan-summary-moj/nature-recovery-plan-summary ↩

58. Safety in custody statistics. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics ↩

59. Press release: International Community to help rebuild Ukrainian legal system and champion rule of law. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/international-community-to-help-rebuild-ukrainian-legal-system-and-champion-rule-of-law ↩

60. Diversity of the judiciary: 2023 statistics. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2023-statistics ↩

61.   HM Treasury: Sustainability reporting guidance 2023-24. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b955f206f78d000d742645/2023-24_Sustainability_Reporting_Guidance.pdf ↩

62. Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy: MoJ. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-sustainability-strategy-moj ↩

63. GGC performance may not align exactly with the emissions reporting table, due to differences in the scope of emissions reported. ↩

64. These values are based on the updated baseline data approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. ↩

65. 2022-23 calendar year data has been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023. ↩

66. Definitions for scope 1-3 emissions: Environmental reporting guidelines: including Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting requirements - GOV.UK ↩

67. 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. ↩

68. Business travel emissions measured and reported as per GGC requirements is one part of scope 3 emissions. More work is required to understand our broader scope 3 emissions profile. ↩

69. These values are based on the updated baseline data approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. ↩

70. 2022-23 calendar year data has been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023. ↩

71. Climate Change Adaptation Strategy: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-adaptation-strategy-moj ↩

72. NAP3 Annex 1: Climate risks and opportunities. Available at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65d47d9b0f4eb10064a981ae/NAP3_Annex_1_Climate_risks_and_opportunities.pdf ↩

73. These values are based on the updated baseline data approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. ↩

74. 2022-23 non-financial data has been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023. ↩

75. These values are based on the updated baseline data approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. ↩

76. 2022-23 non-financial data has been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023. ↩

77. Circular Economy Strategy summary: MoJ. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/circular-economy-strategy-summary-moj ↩

78. MoJ’s single-use plastics policy. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justicesingle-use-plastics-policy ↩

79. Nature Recovery Plan summary: MoJ. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-recovery-plan-summary-moj ↩