The lord chancellor told peers that he recognises the gaping holes in justice funding created by ‘austerity’. But his upbeat messages jarred with what we know about MoJ spending forecasts
In his first full-on parliamentary grilling as lord chancellor, Alex Norris set out his stall before the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee this week.
Welcoming the new boy, chair Lord Foster of Bath (former MP Don Foster) noted Norris had been in office for 115 days and thus had ‘plenty of time to settle in’. And to tackle what Norris called two ‘particularly hot running problems’ – the crisis in prison places and lengthening court wait times.
‘The continuing progression of the Courts and Tribunals Bill is to manage those two issues but not solely to… manage those issues,’ Norris said. ‘It is to manage those issues down to a place where the system gets back to doing what it should be doing as a criminal justice system, particularly around reducing reoffending, which has withered on the vine as the system gets more and more addicted to crisis.’
A ‘new and emerging’ menace in the tribunals is the ‘rapid growth and use of automated tools’. As a result, ‘we are seeing significant behaviour change that, if not addressed now, will later give us serious challenges’.
In setting out his priorities as lord chancellor, Norris name-checked the legal services sector. ‘One of my soft signals of success in this role, I want to really re-land across parliament, across government frankly too, the understanding that the justice department, the MoJ, is one of the ultimate growth departments,’ he said. ‘We have this incredible gem in our civil law. England and Wales is the best legal jurisdiction in the world; we are the destination of choice. It is a £40bn part of our economy.
'My purpose is not always to ask the centre for more money. We have recognised the gaps in funding that have built up over the austerity years and we are closing that gap and I think that’s a good thing'
Alex Norris, lord chancellor
‘As the global economy changes, particularly again with AI and quantum computing, our scope to develop that is really significant and that is a major priority.’
Committee members, however, had different priorities. Much of Norris’ session was spent discussing prisons and probation. When asked by Lord Foster, following questions on probation, if he believed the MoJ needs more funding, Norris replied: ‘I wouldn’t say that. I believe that the funding we are putting in and the extra funding that has been secured by my predecessors gives us that roadmap to build back our [probation] staff.
‘My purpose (I wouldn’t obviously do it publicly anyway) is not always to ask the centre for more money. We have recognised the gaps in funding that have built up over the austerity years and we are closing that gap and I think that’s a good thing.’
Critics will note that this cannot generally be said of day-to-day spending by the MoJ – an unprotected department. This is expected to rise just 2.4% from 2026/27 to 2028/29.
On civil legal aid, Norris said: ‘We need to rebuild this ecosystem now. As a constituency MP, where do my constituents go for redress and, actually, where should they go? This is now set against a trend with automation, AI, you can go back and say, “this happened to me at work, is this right?” and the chatbot will say, “that sounds terrible; would you like me to write you an employment tribunal claim?”.’
He added: ‘We have to get more money in as we’re doing at the moment, but we have to take a whole system approach... to say we are about to have changes in behaviour and changes in volume of behaviour, how do we get the right decisions for people in the right places? Getting the money into it to keep the thing afloat. But then my enthusiasm… is to then rebuild that model as a whole rather than just a series of interventions that may well be less than the sum of its parts.’
Though self-assured throughout, Norris did not hold back on the importance of an independent judiciary. ‘It is my role and this is an “every minute of every day” [role] to be that voice both in government, but also in parliament around protecting that independence of the judiciary so that we can be what we are, which is that exemplar system around the world.’
On this theme, Lord Anderson (David Anderson KC) asked: ‘Are you tempted by proposals to abolish the JAC and transfer powers to appoint judges to yourself?’
Giving any lord chancellor that degree of power was a ‘terrible idea’, Norris said. ‘I am not tempted to do that to any degree,’ he stressed.
‘I think the separation between the judiciary and politicians is absolutely crucial. I know there is a temptation in certain parts of the political spectrum to start to challenge this principle. They will never see it from me because this is one of our crucial freedoms and we should safeguard it absolutely to the end.’
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