Secretary of State for Justice

This article is about the United Kingdom government cabinet minister. For the Spanish minister, see Secretary of State for Justice (Spain).

The secretary of state for justice is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Ministry of Justice. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the office's inception, the incumbent has concurrently been appointed Lord Chancellor.

United Kingdom Secretary of State for Justice
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Shabana Mahmood since 5 July 2024
Ministry of Justice
Style	Justice Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's Pleasure
Precursor	Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
Formation	9 May 2007
First holder	The Lord Falconer
Salary	£159,038 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584 MP salary)[2]
Website	Official Website

The officeholder works alongside the other justice ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for justice, and the performance of the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Justice Select Committee.^[3]

Responsibilities

Corresponding to what is generally known as a justice minister in many other countries, the justice secretary's remit encompasses justice policy for the whole United Kingdom along with matters of justice specific to England and Wales.

The justice secretary is responsible throughout the UK for:

• Human rights and civil liberties;
• Miscarriages of justice (via the Criminal Cases Review Commission); and
• The UK’s relations with the governments of the three Crown Dependencies - Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man.

In relation to England and Wales, the justice secretary's portfolio concerns the following matters:

• The delivery of criminal justice generally, including criminal law, criminal procedure, sentencing, probation and parole, criminal injury compensation, and victim's rights;
• All matters falling under civil justice, including but not limited to civil procedure, administrative law, bankruptcy and insolvency law, commercial law, contract law, family law, probate, and tort; and
• Administration of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service, the Parole Board, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, the Victims' Commissioner, and the Youth Justice Board.

Creation

The then Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, was appointed to the post of Secretary of State for Justice when it was created in 2007. The office of the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs was abolished, along with the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The Home Secretary, John Reid, told Parliament that future secretaries of state for justice would be MPs rather than peers.

List of secretaries of state

For Lord Chancellors before 2003, see List of Lord Chancellors and Lord Keepers. For Secretaries of State between 2003 and 2007, see Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.

Secretary of State		Term of office		Political party		Government
	Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton[4]	9 May 2007	28 June 2007		Labour	Blair (III)
	Jack Straw[n 1][5] MP for Blackburn	28 June 2007	6 May 2010			Brown
	Kenneth Clarke[6] MP for Rushcliffe	12 May 2010	6 September 2012		Conservative	Cameron-Clegg (Coalition)
	Chris Grayling[7] MP for Epsom and Ewell	6 September 2012	8 May 2015
	Michael Gove[8] MP for Surrey Heath	8 May 2015	14 July 2016			Cameron (II)
	Liz Truss[9] MP for South West Norfolk	14 July 2016	11 June 2017			May (I)
	David Lidington[10][11] MP for Aylesbury	11 June 2017	8 January 2018			May (II)
	David Gauke[12] MP for South West Hertfordshire	8 January 2018	24 July 2019
	Robert Buckland[13] MP for South Swindon	24 July 2019	15 September 2021			Johnson (I)
						Johnson (II)
	Dominic Raab[14] MP for Esher and Walton	15 September 2021	6 September 2022
	Brandon Lewis MP for Great Yarmouth	6 September 2022	25 October 2022			Truss
	Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton	25 October 2022	21 April 2023			Sunak
	Alex Chalk MP for Cheltenham	21 April 2023	5 July 2024
	Shabana Mahmood MP for Birmingham Ladywood	5 July 2024	Incumbent		Labour	Starmer

Timeline

See also

• Constitutional Reform Act 2005
• Lord Chancellor

Notes

1. First non-peer to serve as Lord Chancellor since Sir Robert Henley as Lord Keeper of the Seal in 1760.