What was your highlight of 2025?
Without a doubt returning to the Ministry of Justice as permanent secretary. This is a great department, filled with dedicated people, tackling some of the most difficult issues in society – and we have an important agenda which will bring more change to the justice system than we have seen in a generation. It's an exciting time to be in MOJ.
What was the hardest part of being a leader in 2025?
The huge change agenda – coupled with rapid advances in technology are a massive opportunity, but also mean our workforce of over 90,000 people needs to work through the complexity. Leading through change is one of the most important parts of our job as leaders, but this takes a lot of personal energy to make sure we are supporting our staff through uncertainty to a better future.
What are the main challenges facing your department in the coming year?
Making sure that some big policy changes make a difference and result in more places in prisons, more probation officers and a lower court backlog. Ministers have made some bold choices. We need to make sure we can turn these into a reality in our operational services so that the public sees quicker, more effective justice.
Read all the entries to this year's perm secs round up here