Justice Committee to question MoJ Permanent Secretary and senior department officials on Annual Report and Accounts
The Justice Committee will take evidence from Antonia Romeo, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, and other senior department officials during a wide-ranging session scrutinising the MoJ’s budgetary spending and priorities.
Meeting details
During the session, the cross-party Committee will examine the Ministry of Justice’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) for the year ending 31 March 2023 which were published in November 2023. MPs will focus on key MoJ policy areas including prisons, probation, courts and the judiciary as well as Legal Aid.
As Permanent Secretary, Ms Romeo is the principal accounting officer for the MoJ group, accountable to Parliament for the running of the department including the management of its budget. She is not accountable for MoJ policy. She has been in post since 18 January 2021.
Other panel witnesses will include James McEwen, Chief Operating Officer at the Ministry of Justice, Amy Rees, Director General Chief Executive of HMPPS (His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service and Nick Goodwin, Chief Executive of HMCTS (His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service).
Given concerns over prison capacity, the session is expected to touch upon the prison building programme and strategies in relation to safety, youth justice and drugs, as well as the performance of the Probation Service. The session will also examine the maintenance of the courts estate, efforts to address the case backlog, plus civil and criminal Legal Aid.
The Committee is also likely to put questions to the officials on progress against targets, the future challenges facing the justice system and wider ambitions for the department.