Justice & Home Affairs

With the end of 2016 fast approaching, we asked the UK's top officials to look back at the year, outline their goals for 2017 – and shed some light on their festive favourites. Mark Sedwill, permanent secretary at the Home Office takes part in our annual perm secs round-up...

With the end of 2016 fast approaching, we asked the UK's top officials to look back at the year, outline their goals for 2017 – and shed some light on their festive favourites. Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, takes part in our annual perm secs round-up​

Making a success of Brexit does not mean UK should ditch its reputation as a "free, tolerant, outward facing society", says former Foreign Office permanent secretary

As well as leading the Ministry of Justice through a time of immense challenge and change, Richard Heaton is also busy trying to break down the barriers holding back black and minority ethnic civil servants. He tells Suzannah Brecknell why he’s optimistic about the future. Photos: Paul Heartfield

Institute for Government says ruling on Parliamentary approval for Article 50 trigger will “greatly impact” Theresa May’s plans to enact leave mechanism by March 2017

Justice permanent secretary tells MPs that “bearing down on the gap” between spending review targets and actual spending is the largest challenge for his officials, as he stands by the decision to implement spending controls that caused friction between department and prisons inspectorate

Ex-immigration and enforcement chief Amanda Campbell takes up post as troubled watchdog’s chief executive officer 

Susan Acland-Hood on the move as courts service presses ahead with digital shake-up

Public Accounts Committee says department is unable to evidence reforms' success and significant challenges remain

Tom Read, who has been at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for just seven months, will take over from Arif Harbott 

The Howard League for Penal Reform finds that there were 14,689 frontline officers in prisons in June 2016, down from 15,110 a year earlier

Equalities and Human Rights Commission paints stark picture of differing outcomes for ethnic minority groups and urges government to join up disparate initiatives

Caroline Normand set to join Which?, while other moves see the government name Lowell Goddard’s abuse inquiry replacement and Charlie Bean lined up for the Budget Responsibility Committee

Home secretary Amber Rudd says she intends to appoint a new chair for the troubled inquiry “as soon as possible"

Prejudice and discrimination can rise at a time of heightened insecurity, says Dr Marc Verlot of the Equality and Human Rights Commission – and it's not just the job of the police to tackle it

Theresa May arrives at Number 10 with years of experience on the government's key decision-making body on security. Dr Joe Devanny of the International Centre for Security Analysis takes a look at what the new government will mean for the way departments support prime ministers on national security issues

“None of us had any idea things would move so fast today, least of all the prime minister,” says Number 10

Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill is under pressure to take action and deliver better returns on the use of confiscation orders

National Probation Service director Colin Allars named as successor to Lin Hinnigan at troubled young offenders' organisation

Justice committee warns the Ministry of Justice against seeking to "represent the quality of its evidence base to be higher than it is" after senior legal figures criticise research into court fees

Resignation announcement comes ahead of the publication of the Taylor Review of the Youth Justice System

Latest revisions to the tax authority's Single Departmental Plan include customer service targets and aim of getting staff engagement up to civil service-wide average

Cabinet Office promises new multi agency incident transfer protocol will help improve response to major incidents like terror attacks and floods

Experts question the ability of Queen’s Speech centrepiece to deal with system's core problems