Ministry for Justice to face £2 billion budget reduction
Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, is tonight facing up to a potential £2 billion reduction in his £9 billion departmental budget. A letter has been leaked to the unions which would indicate that the £2 billion reduction in spending would need to be achieved over the next two years and could result in 15,000 job losses from the department's 80,000 workforce.
Aside from the fact there are potentially 15,000 job losses to come over the next 24 months it is the very fact that £2 billion could well be taken out of the justice system which is causing more anger. This is a system which many people had hoped would receive some kind of ring fencing from the UK government but looks likely to be hit as hard, if not harder, than many other departments in the UK government. The full extent of UK government departmental spending cuts will slowly but surely become more evident with a final decision on spending to be announced in March 2011.
Whether the government is looking at a program which would ensure the vast majority of the pain of cuts in the UK public sector budget are experienced in the early years of its term in office, thereby giving more time for recovery before for the next election, remains to be seen.
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