Who's who at the MoJ?
Following the resignation of Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk has been appointed as the latest holder of that post. There have been eight different people in charge at Petty France since May 2015, Mr Raab serving on two separate occasions. Mr Chalk was previously prisons and probation minister at the MoJ between February 2020 and September 2021.
Here are my brief biographies of the current ministerial team.
Alex Chalk – Justice Secretary
Alex Chalk KC MP has been the Member of Parliament for Cheltenham since 2015. He was appointed as Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence in October 2022 and was formerly HM Solicitor General for England and Wales and the Prisons and Probation Minister.
Prior to being elected in 2015, Alex was a barrister and prosecuted and defended in cases concerning terrorism, international fraud, and homicide.
As Justice Minister, Alex led the Domestic Abuse Bill through the Commons. For the first time in history, the Bill includes a wide-ranging legal definition of domestic abuse which incorporates a range of abuses beyond physical violence, including emotional, coercive or controlling behaviour, and economic abuse.
During his time as Prisons Minister, Alex announced a new scheme to provide temporary, basic accommodation to prison leavers for twelve weeks as well as overhauling the unpaid work that offenders are ordered to do as part of community service.
Edward Argar – Minister of State
Born in 1977, and originally from Kent, Mr Argar attended his local state grammar school before studying for a history degree at Oriel College, Oxford. Both his parents were teachers, his mother originally from a farming family and his father from an army family.
After university he moved to London and spent four years working as a Political Adviser to the then Shadow Foreign Secretary focusing on Middle East policy and travelling extensively in the region. After that, he spent almost a decade working for private sector businesses including Hedra, Serco and Mouchel in management consultancy and communications jobs
Mr Argar has been the MP for Charnwood since 2015.
He was Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care between 10 September 2019 and 6 July 2022. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice between 14 June 2018 and 10 September 2019. This is his third different Ministerial job since 6 September this year!
The minister is responsible for:
Victims and Courts
- Victims and Witnesses
- Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO)
- Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG)
- Sentencing
- Foreign National Offenders
- Miscarriages of Justice
- Statutory Instruments (SIs)
- Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA)
- Transparency
Damian Hinds – Minister of State
Mr Hinds Damian’s degree is in politics, philosophy and economics. Before Parliament, he spent 18 years working in the pubs/brewing and hotel industries, in Britain and abroad. Damian lives between Alton and Petersfield with his wife Jacqui and their three children. He has been the MP for East Hampshire since 2010.
In 2015 he was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, a role which he held until being appointed Minister for Employment in June 2016. Mr Hinds was appointed Secretary of State for Education in January 2018, a position he held for 18 months. Most recently Mr Hinds served as Security Minister at the Home Office from August 2021 to July 2022.
The minister is responsible for:
Prisons, Parole and Probation
- Prison operations, policy, reform and industrial relations
- Probation policy and operations
- Youth justice
- Parole
- Offender health
- Offender Cohorts
- Extremism
- Home Detention Curfew (HDC)
- Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) schemes
- Drugs
- Electronic monitoring
- Reducing reoffending
Mike Freer – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Mr Freer spent most of his career in retail banking for Barclays Bank plc as well as some time with Deloitte & Touche as a management consultant before becoming MP for Finchley and Golders Green in 2010. He was appointed to the Government Whips Office in 2017 and became Minister for Exports at the Department for International Trade, alongside a role as Minister for Equalities in 2021 – holding both roles until July 2022.
He is responsible for:
Legal services
- International
- Promotion of legal services
- Crown Dependencies
- Lead on cross-cutting CJS issues
- Criminal law and Criminal court recovery (including legal aid)
- HMCTS administration including fees
- Court and Tribunal reform programme delivery
- Court and Tribunal transparency
- Commons shadow for Lord Bellamy
- Office of the Public Guardian (OPG)
- Mental capacity
- Coroners and death management
- Racial disparity
- Cross cutting corporate decisions
Lord Christopher Bellamy QC, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Sir Christopher Bellamy is a barrister who originally specialised in European, competition and regulatory law, and became a QC in 1986. In 1992 he was appointed as a judge to (what is now) the General Court of the European Union where he served for seven years. At the end of 1999 he returned to the UK to set up (what is now) the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), of which he was President until 2007. In 2007 Sir Christopher retired from the CAT and became a senior consultant with Linklaters LLP, and Chairman of the Linklaters Global Competition Practice in 2011. He stepped down from Linklaters at the end of October 2020, and rejoined Monckton Chambers.
His responsibilities are:
- MoJ business in the House of Lords (excluding Criminal Legal Aid)
- Constitution
- Modern Justice System: Legal Support; Dispute Resolution and Lawtech and emerging technologies
- Human Rights
- Judicial Review
- Judicial Policy
- Civil Justice
- International
- Tribunals Policy
- Court Recovery – Civil, Family, Tribunal
- Legal Aid – Civil, Family, Tribunal
- Legal Services
- Devolution and the Union
- Family Justice and Marriage and Divorce
- EU Retained Law policy
