Public and Commercial Services Union

PCS members in the Justice Sector

PCS members work in many government departments and non-departmental public bodies in the justice sector, including:

•    Crown Prosecution Service
•    Forensic Science Service
•    Home Office 
•    Identity and Passport Service
•    Independent Police Complaints Commission
•    Land Registry 
•    Metropolitan Police 
•    Ministry of Justice 
•    Prison Service (or National Offender Management Service) 
•    Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Justice sector members face many of the same issues and erosive government policies that their counterparts in other union areas and the public sector confront, namely on:

• pay
• staff cuts and increased workloads
• privatisation and marketisation of public services and the sector
• threat of redundancies
• inadequate resourcing
• organisational restructuring on a rapid basis.

With the additional strain of being constantly in the media and public eye, mostly in negative terms and unfairly so, and undergoing a huge, continual cycle of government reform and activity, the criminal and civil justice system, is facing some of its most daunting challenges to date.

Find out more what PCS is doing to tackle these problems in our campaigns section.

PCS justice sector forum

The PCS justice sector forum is the PCS co-ordinating body set up to advise the national executive committee on justice sector policy issues affecting the work undertaken by PCS members.

It also provides information to the justice unions’ parliamentary group (JUPG), the PCS parliamentary group, and the family courts unions’ parliamentary group, and maintains close working links with the pan-union justice forum and union learning networks in this sector.

Meetings are usually held quarterly and are linked with those of the JUPG.

The forum consists of one lay representative from each of the bargaining areas that has members working in the justice system, nominated by their group or national branch.  A PCS vice president, full time officers and a campaigns officer attend as necessary.

The justice unions’ parliamentary group

The JUPG is the parliamentary arm of the justice forum which regularly briefs members of Parliament on key issues affecting members in this sector.

If you are a PCS member working in the justice sector and would like to raise an issue, in the first instance you should contact your group executive committee, national branch executive committee or full time officer.  You may do this by contacting PCS's law and justice bargaining unit on 020 7801 2625. 

Likewise, if you would like to know more about any of the above, feel free to contact the bargaining unit.