Tory Party Conference 2015: The Ministry of Justice will face job cuts, Michael Gove says

Justice Secretary admits department will have to undergo cuts while implementing ambitious prison reforms

Austerity measures could put significant pressures on Mr Gove’s reform programme (Reuters)

The Ministry of Justice will be asked to implement an ambitious prison reform programme whilst simultaneously facing job cuts, the Justice Secretary has admitted.

David Cameron this morning announced that prisons would be a “big area of social reform” over the coming parliament with a focus on improving prisoner rehabilitation and modernising the prison estate.

But in an interview after Mr Cameron’s speech Michael Gove confirmed there would be simultaneous job cuts at the Ministry while the programme was being delivered.

“It’s certainly the case that at the heart of the Ministry, in the administrative centre, we’re asking some tough questions about how we run things,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme when asked specifically about job cuts.

“But when it comes to the efficient running of prisons I’ll never compromise safety and I’ll ensure we have the confidence of staff and governors for prisons to be run well. The bureaucracy at the centre? Yes, there will be cuts.”

The MoJ is not a protected department and has been asked to find £249m more cuts since the last budget.

The department had planned to restrict the use of consultants and delay capital projects.

These austerity measures could put significant pressures and constraints on Mr Gove’s reform programme – restricting access to outside help and complicating building programmes.

Mr Gove says he wants to sell old prisons to fund the construction of new ones.

The Prime Minister lauded Mr Gove as a “great Conservative reformer” in his keynote speech to Conservative party conference in Manchester.

“We have got to get away from the sterile lock-em-up or let-em-out debate, and get smart about this,” he told assembled Tory activists. “When our prisons are relics from the time of Dickens – it’s time to sell them off and build new ones that actually work.

“This is going to be a big area of social reform in the next five years. And I have just the man for the job – the man who takes on every vested interest and gives everyone a chance the man who began the great transformation of our education system and is now going to do the same for prisoners yes, the great Conservative reformer, Michael Gove.”

Mr Gove is also spearheading the Conservatives’ manifesto promise to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.