Should there be a Ministry of Justice for England and Wales What are the advantages and disadvantages - Essay Example

The role for these departments is to nab the accused and give them the appropriate punishments, so they will never commit the crime again, thereby saving others’ lives. This paper will discuss one such government department in United Kingdom, the Ministry of Justice for England and Wales by focusing on its advantages and disadvantages. The Ministry of Justice for England and Wales was formed in 2007, after the home office was bifurcated into two arms, one for security and the other for justice.

This separate justice department of the United Kingdom government only takes care of the sentencing of the accused, probation, prisons and also prevention of re-offending. It has wide reach as it handles the affairs of the three devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, with England. Its wide scope has some inbuilt advantages because certain legal aspects like extradition, conviction in multiple cases etc can be handled easily, due to interlinking. The next advantage with this separate Ministry of Justice is that, the slimmed down Home Office will be able to deal with terrorism related issues more efficiently.

That is, with United Kingdom often being the target of terrorist related attacks including the tragic London bombing in 2005, concentration and prevention of terrorism is of utmost importance. So, this separate Ministry of Justice for England and Wales by looking at crimes other than terrorism will provide the home office a good source of personnel, man hours, intelligence inputs to counter terrorism effectively. Thus, the Ministry of Justice provides an indirect advantage. The other advantage with this separate Ministry of Justice is that, it helps to correct an unwanted ironical situation.

That is, with the previous arrangement, the home department has to singularly take care of administering justice to the accused as well as sentencing and putting the convicts behind bars. This anomalous situation