The Ministry of Justice is responsible for prisons, probation,
courts, tribunals, the judiciary, legal aid, and other key
functions of our justice system in England and Wales. The
department's budget was cut sharply in the 2010s (by around
one-third). Recent funding injections have been substantial, but
have not been enough to offset earlier cuts. In 2025–26,
real-terms day-to-day spending by the Ministry of Justice is set
to be 14% lower than in 2007–08, and 24% lower in per-person
terms (per head of population in England and
Wales).
Many areas of government spending experienced cuts during the
2010s. But the Ministry of Justice has fared worse than
the average department since 2007–08; it has even fared worse
than other ‘unprotected' departments (outside of health,
education and defence). Had the Ministry of Justice's day-to-day
budget increased at the same rate as the average department since
2007–08, it would have been some 41% (£4.5 billion) higher in
2024–25. If it had grown in line with the average ‘unprotected'
department, it would have been 9% (£1.0 billion) higher.
These are among the findings of new research from the Institute
for Fiscal Studies, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which
presents the first consistent estimates of what has happened to
Ministry of Justice funding over a period of more than 20 years.
Other findings include:
- The Ministry of Justice has been a relative budget winner
since 2019, including at the 2024 Autumn Budget. Its total budget
(including both day-to-day and capital funding) is expected to
grow at an average real rate of 5.6% between 2023–24 and 2025–26,
compared to 4.3% for departmental spending as a whole.
- Even so, the total Ministry of Justice budget is set to be no
higher in 2025–26 than it was 20 years ago. This is despite a 27%
larger economy and a 16% larger English and Welsh population in
2025–26 compared with 2005–06.
- Between 2007–08, when justice spending peaked, and 2025–26,
whereas the total Ministry of Justice budget faced average annual
real terms cuts of 0.4% per year, total spending by departments
increased by 1.2% per year, and total spending by other
‘unprotected' departments (outside of health, education and
defence) increased by 0.5% per year. This takes the Autumn Budget
2024 plans for 2025–26 as given.
- Of the main components of the Ministry of Justice budget, HM
Courts and Tribunals Service has been relatively protected
(experiencing a 3% real-terms cut to its day-to-day budget
between 2007–08 and 2023–24), while HM Prison and Probation
Service and the Legal Aid Agency have seen larger cuts (11% and
29% in real terms, respectively).
- Capital funding for the Ministry of Justice has sharply
increased in recent years – the budget has trebled since 2019–20
– after falling to almost zero in the mid-2010s. The prison
system has been the main beneficiary of this about-turn: more
than 80% of the increase in Ministry of Justice capital spending
between 2019–20 and 2023–24 went to HM Prison and Probation
Service.
- Given reasonable assumptions about what might happen to
‘protected' budgets in June's Spending Review, ‘unprotected'
budgets such as that of the Ministry of Justice could face
real-terms cuts over the rest of the parliament.
This work is published as part of a new programme of work on the
economics of the justice
system. Future reports will get under the skin of these
numbers and look at, for example, the productivity of the system
and the impact of funding cuts and procedural reforms.
Magdalena Dominguez, Research Economist at IFS and an
author of the report, said:
‘The Ministry of Justice has faced big budget cuts over the past
decade and a half – bigger cuts than the average department, and
bigger cuts than the average “unprotected” department. The
justice budget has increased in recent years, with a further
funding injection in the Autumn 2024 Budget, but day-to-day
spending on justice in 2025–26 is still set to be 24% lower, in
per-person terms, than it was in 2007–08. Looking ahead, further
cuts could be on the horizon, given the tightness of the
government's spending plans heading into the June Spending
Review. Reconciling that with Labour's ambitions and manifesto
promises of improvements to prisons and courts could be
challenging, to say the least.'
Rob Street, Director of Justice at the Nuffield
Foundation said:
‘This important report presents a cogent analysis of government
spending on the justice system in recent decades and in doing so
provides vital context for understanding the challenges that the
system now faces.'
