| Secretary of State for Justice | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Category | Cabinet position | |||
| Style | The Right Honourable Justice Secretary | |||
| Inaugural holder | NDGAARONDI | |||
| Number of Justice Secretaries | 23 | |||
The Justice Secretary, known in full as the Secretary of State for Justice, is a senior official within the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Ministry of Justice. The office is a cabinet-level position. The current Justice Secretary is Wilhuff Tarkin, who was appointed by Prime Minister CoffeeGeek on 18 December 2017.
Responsibilities
The Justice Secretary is responsible for overseeing the following areas:
- European Union and international justice policy
- Freedom of information and data protection
- Human rights and civil liberties
- The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
- The National Archives
The majority of the Justice Secretary's work takes place in England and Wales where their main role is to ensure that all suspected offenders are appropriately dealt with. As part of this, their responsibilities extend to the commissioning of prison services, rehabilitation, victim support, the probation service, sentencing policy, and compensation.
They also oversee: the administration of all courts and tribunals, land registration, legal aid and the regulation of legal services, coroners, public law, the maintenance of the judiciary, public guardianship, supervision of restricted patients detained under the Mental Health Act, and civil law and justice.
Since 2007, the Justice Secretary has also often served as Lord Chancellor. As part of this role, they are responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts.
The Justice Secretary often works closely with the Secretary of State for the Home Department due to the overlap between their respective roles.
Statements of Intent and Departmental Reviews
Justice Secretaries have produced the following statements of intent and departmental reviews:
| Type | Justice Secretary | Released | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
List of Justice Secretaries
NDGAARONDI was appointed as the first Justice Secretary for the Liberal Democrat Party following the first general election and since him, there have been 22 other Justice Secretaries.
| Justice Secretary | Party | Took office | Left office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NDGAARONDI | Liberal | May 2005 | November 2005 | |
| Unpossible | Liberal | December 2005 | May 2006 | |
| Chrism | Conservative | June 2006 | November 2006 | |
| Juno | Labour | December 2007 | May 2008 | |
| veggie4life | Liberal | June 2008 | November 2008 | |
| AnythingButChardonnay | Conservative | November 2008 | May 2009 | |
| thunder_chunky | Liberal | March 2010 | May 2010 | |
| Anythingbutchardonnay | Conservative | May 2010 | October 2010 | |
| Jake Pearson | Libertarian | November 2010 | March 2011 | |
| Life_peer | UKIP | April 2011 | October 2011 | |
| mikejggly | Labour | October 2011 | March 2012 | |
| Life_peer | UKIP | April 2012 | September 2012 | |
| Life_peer | UKIP | April 2013 | March 2014 | |
| Blue Meltwater | Green | April 2014 | October 2014 | |
| The Legal Eagle | Labour | October 2014 | July 2015 | |
| Midnightmemories | UKIP | July 2015 | August 2015 | |
| Saracen's Fez | Labour | October 2015 | November 2015 | |
| RayApparently | Labour | November 2015 | December 2015 | |
| thehistorybore | Liberal | December 2015 | May 2016 | |
| PetrosAC | Liberal | May 2016 | July 2016 | |
| TitanCream | Liberal | |||
| thehistorybore | Liberal | July 2016 | November 2016 | |
| DMcGovern | Socialist | November 2016 | May 2017 | |
| TheDefiniteArticle | Labour | June 2017 | November 2017 | |
| Wilhuff Tarkin | Conservative | December 2017 | incumbent | |