The Courts Department and the Justice Ministry will merge to form an expanded Justice Ministry, State Services Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.
The decision to merge followed a recent justice sector review and meant the ministry would be the Government's primary adviser on justice policy and criminal and public law.
It would
be the lead agency on criminal and public law policy and would identify ways to improve co-ordination between justice sector agencies, Mr Mallard said.
The merger created a single point of contact between the executive and the judiciary and provided a low-risk opportunity to reduce the number of justice agencies and bring together public law policy and operations.
"We do not wish to undertake wholesale reform of the public service," he said in a statement.
"But we are always looking for improvements and will take opportunities to make changes when we believe it is timely and appropriate to do so."
No jobs would be lost in the merger, which would happen on October 1.
- NZPA
