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What happens next?

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17 May 2007 / Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC
Issue: 7273 / Categories: Opinion , Constitutional law
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Will the Ministry of Justice be fit for purpose? Geoffrey Bindman reports

As we awaited the election, or more likely coronation, of Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister we learned of the resignation of the Home Secretary, John Reid, soon after his announcement of a major reorganisation of his department. Creating a new Ministry of Justice, abolishing the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), and allocating its functions and many of the functions of the Home Office to the new ministry would seem to demand careful thought and preparation.

Yet the changes were announced by Reid on 29 March and, without consultation or Parliamentary debate, have already been implemented on 9 May. In the first week of May I was told by a senior official of the DCA that it was still not clear whether after 9 May the office of Lord Chancellor would still exist and, if so, whether it had any continuing functions.

Lord Falconer, who until 9 May was Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State

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