Ministry of Justice to create 500 jobs in Wales

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced it will move around 500 jobs to Wales as part of the government’s Places for Growth programme, aimed at ‘levelling up’ communities across the UK.

New regional MoJ offices will expand the MoJ’s presence in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, with additional roles in North Wales. Seven Justice Collaboration Centres will be launched, along with a series of satellite offices.

The government’s Places for Growth programme aims to move 22,000 civil service roles out of London by 2030. However, despite its claim “good progress” has been made towards this goal, a recent report by think tank Onward said little progress had been made.

Onward’s report claims that since 2018, when the government announced its plan to make the civil service less ‘London-centric’, new London-based roles have grown at twice the rate of other regions.

As such, the news that 500 jobs are to move to Wales has been welcomed.

Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart, said: “Our key aim is to level up all areas of the UK and that commitment includes providing more jobs and opportunities within the UK Government.

“We want to make full use of the talent and potential of the Welsh workforce and moving hundreds of roles to Wales will help us achieve that objective.

“We have hugely ambitious plans for Wales which will deliver growth and innovation in the years to come and relocating more civil service roles is part of that package”.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, said: “By having more of our staff based outside London we can recruit the best people wherever they live so that the justice system benefits from more diverse backgrounds, outlooks and experience”.'¯

The new Justice Collaboration Centres will support face to face work of staff in roles including finance, digital and human resources during training and meetings in Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham,'¯South Tyneside,'¯Cardiff, Ipswich and Brighton.'¯Staff will also be based at smaller new'¯regional'¯Justice Satellite Offices, including desk space in pre-existing buildings like courts.

The positions will be advertised nationally, rather than tied to a location – an approach the government said has already led to most new recruits being based outside of London.