The Gove legacyLASPOLASPOLASPOLASPOLASPO
21.4There was some hilarity among members of the teaching profession about appointment of Michael Gove as Justice Secretary in 2015. It was assumed by the educationalists that Michael Gove’s tenure at the Ministry of Justice would cause as many ructions for the professionals working in the system as he had when Secretary of State for Education. However, Gove’s time at the Ministry of Justice was mainly marked by a series of policy u-turns which dismantled the legacy of his predecessor, Chris Grayling, and earned him plaudits from the legal profession for adopting a more considered and principled approach to the formulation of policy.
21.5Early in his period of office at the Ministry of Justice, Gove relaxed the rules on allowing books for prisoners, after restrictions Grayling had attempted to impose had been successfully challenged in the High Court.
1R (Gordon-Jones) v Secretary of State for Justice [2014] EWHC 3997 (Admin). He also shelved plans to build a mega-prison for young offenders. The Howard League for Penal Reform, which had also fought the books ban so successfully, argued the new prison would become ‘a centre for violence and self harm.’
21.6In the face of opposition from David Cameron and the Foreign Office, Gove scrapped a £5.9m contract to provide a training programme for prison officers working for the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia. Another decision which marked a change to a more ethical policy direction was the abandonment of the criminal courts charge. The policy of charging between £150 and £1,200
2The Prosecution of Offenders Act 1985 (Criminal Courts Charge) Regulations 2015 SI No 796. to all convicted defendants, who had not pleaded guilty, had caused a righteous backlash in the criminal justice system, leading to 100 magistrates threatening to resign over the issue.
21.7In 2016, Gove was firmly at the centre of the political earthquake that was Brexit as one of the leading lights of the campaign to leave the EU. In the aftermath of the leave vote, much to the surprise of many, especially his fellow Brexiter Boris Johnson, he set his sights on the top job. His betrayal of Johnson led to his dismissal by Theresa May in July 2016 after she emerged triumphant in the contest to replace David Cameron as prime minister.
21.8Gove’s most significant legacy was securing the budget to commit the Government to reforming the courts and tribunals system. His successor, Liz Truss, has been left with the considerable task of overseeing this £700m digital transformation programme, which is supposed to lead to savings of £200m per year by 2019/20. As with all such projects there is considerable potential for delays and expensive mistakes, especially when attempting to graft digital solutions onto existing systems. If Truss is to enhance her political reputation she will have to minimise these risks. She also faces considerable challenges in the prisons system caused by chronic under-funding and penal policies which fail to rehabilitate and prevent re-offending.