Despite recent increases, the Ministry of Justice budget has still not returned to pre-2010 levels

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for prisons, probation, courts, tribunals, the judiciary, legal aid, and other key functions of our justice system in England and Wales. The department’s budget was cut sharply in the 2010s (by around one-third). Recent funding injections have been substantial, but have not been enough to offset earlier cuts. In 2025–26, real-terms day-to-day spending by the Ministry of Justice is set to be 14% lower than in 2007–08, and 24% lower in per-person terms (per head of population in England and Wales).

Many areas of government spending experienced cuts during the 2010s. But the Ministry of Justice has fared worse than the average department since 2007–08; it has even fared worse than other ‘unprotected’ departments (outside of health, education and defence). Had the Ministry of Justice’s day-to-day budget increased at the same rate as the average department since 2007–08, it would have been some 41% (£4.5 billion) higher in 2024–25. If it had grown in line with the average ‘unprotected’ department, it would have been 9% (£1.0 billion) higher.

These are among the findings of new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which presents the first consistent estimates of what has happened to Ministry of Justice funding over a period of more than 20 years. Other findings include:

• The Ministry of Justice has been a relative budget winner since 2019, including at the 2024 Autumn Budget. Its total budget (including both day-to-day and capital funding) is expected to grow at an average real rate of 5.6% between 2023–24 and 2025–26, compared to 4.3% for departmental spending as a whole.
• Even so, the total Ministry of Justice budget is set to be no higher in 2025–26 than it was 20 years ago. This is despite a 27% larger economy and a 16% larger English and Welsh population in 2025–26 compared with 2005–06.
• Between 2007–08, when justice spending peaked, and 2025–26, whereas the total Ministry of Justice budget faced average annual real terms cuts of 0.4% per year, total spending by departments increased by 1.2% per year, and total spending by other ‘unprotected’ departments (outside of health, education and defence) increased by 0.5% per year. This takes the Autumn Budget 2024 plans for 2025–26 as given.
• Of the main components of the Ministry of Justice budget, HM Courts and Tribunals Service has been relatively protected (experiencing a 3% real-terms cut to its day-to-day budget between 2007–08 and 2023–24), while HM Prison and Probation Service and the Legal Aid Agency have seen larger cuts (11% and 29% in real terms, respectively).
• Capital funding for the Ministry of Justice has sharply increased in recent years – the budget has trebled since 2019–20 – after falling to almost zero in the mid-2010s. The prison system has been the main beneficiary of this about-turn: more than 80% of the increase in Ministry of Justice capital spending between 2019–20 and 2023–24 went to HM Prison and Probation Service.
• Given reasonable assumptions about what might happen to ‘protected' budgets in June’s Spending Review, ‘unprotected’ budgets such as that of the Ministry of Justice could face real-terms cuts over the rest of the parliament.

This work is published as part of a new programme of work on the economics of the justice system. Future reports will get under the skin of these numbers and look at, for example, the productivity of the system and the impact of funding cuts and procedural reforms.

Magdalena Domínguez, Research Economist at IFS and an author of the report, said:

‘The Ministry of Justice has faced big budget cuts over the past decade and a half – bigger cuts than the average department, and bigger cuts than the average “unprotected” department. The justice budget has increased in recent years, with a further funding injection in the Autumn 2024 Budget, but day-to-day spending on justice in 2025–26 is still set to be 24% lower, in per-person terms, than it was in 2007–08. Looking ahead, further cuts could be on the horizon, given the tightness of the government’s spending plans heading into the June Spending Review. Reconciling that with Labour’s ambitions and manifesto promises of improvements to prisons and courts could be challenging, to say the least.’

Rob Street, Director of Justice at the Nuffield Foundation said:

‘This important report presents a cogent analysis of government spending on the justice system in recent decades and in doing so provides vital context for understanding the challenges that the system now faces.’