The Lord Chancellor's and Law Officers' Departmental Report 1998-1999

	LCD Headquarters
	Magistrates' Courts Organisation and Performance
	Judicial Appointments
	Management of Headquarters and the Associated Offices
	The Court Service
	The Public Trust Office
	Annex A
	Annex B

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The Lord Chancellor's Department is responsible for the machinery of justice in England and Wales, and in particular for judicial appointments, courts, legal services and civil and family law reform. The Department has a Headquarters and two executive agencies, the Court Service and Public Trust Office. Their responsibilities are set out in the introduction to this report.

Further information on the work of the Lord Chancellor's Department Headquarters can be obtained from:

Strategy for the future

The Department is reviewing its plans for 1998-99 to 2000-01 as part of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. The aim and strategic objectives the Department will work to from April 1998 will develop from those it has worked to in 1997/98. Revisions will link the Department's strategic objectives more clearly to collective Government objectives, and direct them more positively to more specific outcomes.

The Department's aim and objectives 1997-98

The Department's aim is to ensure that people can uphold their rights and fulfil their obligations, in particular through efficient and affordable courts and legal services, and by developing the civil law to meet society's needs. In pursuit of its aim the Department seeks to:

• safeguard the independence of the judiciary and the judicial process
• work closely with other bodies on matters of common interest
• uphold the Government Code of Practice
• uphold Citizen's Charter commitments
• secure maximum value for money from all its work and ensure that overall expenditure is controlled
• build on its knowledge base
• be committed to equal opportunities, and
• act as a good employer.

In 1997-98, the Department worked towards six Strategic Objectives.

To continue to improve the arrangements for judicial appointments and effectively support judicial training

To ensure that courts can deal with criminal cases in a just, effective and cost-efficient manner

To ensure that civil law is clear and fair, and that dispute resolution procedures are effective and affordable

To provide effective and supportive family dispute resolution procedures

To encourage and facilitate improvements in magistrates' courts performance

To encourage the provision of competent and affordable legal and other services and, when publicly funded, to ensure that they are targeted to areas of greatest need.

More detailed plans and reports of the Department's performance are published in the corporate and business plans of the Court Service and Public Trust Office, and the annual reports published by the Court Service, Public Trust Office, Law Commission, Legal Aid Board, Judicial Studies Board, Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education, Council on Tribunals and Legal Services Ombudsman.

 

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