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Courts campaign stepped up as government plans to axe £2 billion from MOJ budget

31 August 2010

The Ministry of Justice is planning for job cuts on an unprecedented scale as the first indication of the savings demanded by the coalition government.

 

£2 billion would be axed from MOJ's budget


An announcement made to staff in August revealed that about £2 billion of the MoJ’s £9 billion budget would be axed.
This is equivalent to the entire budget for prisons, or the money the department spends each year on courts and tribunals.


Cuts on this scale cannot be delivered without closing prisons and bringing courts to a standstill. The union also fears that about 15,000 of the MoJ’s 80,000 staff could be at risk of losing their jobs.


Staff have been told that many savings will have to be made within the first two years of the next spending review period, which will be announced on 20 October.

 

Third of courts already to close


Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke has previously announced almost a third of all courts face closure.


This programme consisted of a public consultation on the closure of 103 magistrates’ courts and 54 county courts.
PCS immediately launched a “Justice Under the Hammer” campaign to fight cuts across the area.


The union believes the government should be creating jobs, not cutting them, to help the economy to grow.
Many services, including the collection of fines by the courts, are already under severe strain and the union fears these cuts will leave the department unable to function.


A series of branch meetings was called for members to marshal their arguments against the cuts to feed into our response to the consultation which closes on 15 September.

 

Get active


Members also got writing to their MPs to urge them to sign an early day motion against the courts closures. Members continue to email their constituency MPs online to urge them to oppose the closures and extend the consultation which PCS feels is woefully inadequate.


A number of “Justice under the Hammer” branded materials have already been produced for members in both the MoJ and CPS, such as recruitment leaflets, public flyers and a petition against courts closures.
Get involved by following the link