The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have announced more temporary accommodation for 12,000 ex-prisoners in England and Wales at risk of homelessness, in an effort to reduce reoffending and cut crime. Prisons and Probation Minister, Damian Hinds has said that this initiative, which is part of the Community Accommodation Scheme, will also save 'the taxpayer some of the £18 billion cost of repeat offending' as evidence shows that ex-prisoners living in stable accommodation are 50% less likely to reoffend. The scheme, which was launched in July 2021, provided accommodation for offenders in Yorkshire and Humber, Greater Manchester, the North West, the East of England and Kent, Surrey and Sussex as well as Wales in 2022. The scheme will now launch in the North East, East Midlands, West Midlands, South Central, South West and London, backed by £40m in funding.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Law Commission have announced the reappointment of Professor Penney Lewis as the Commissioner of the Law Commission of England and Wales. Professor Penney Lewis has been reappointed from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2029.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that 20 Nightingale courtrooms, across nine venues, will remain open in 2024 across England and Wales allow more cases to be heard. The temporary courts that will remain open are: Barbican, London, Chichester, Cirencester, Croydon, Fleetwood, Blackpool, Grand Connaught Rooms, London, Maple House, Birmingham, Swansea and Telford. Six of the nine venues will remain open until March 2025, with the Barbican (August 2024), Grand Connaught Rooms (September 2024) and Maple House (December 2024) all to close later in 2024. The temporary courts in Maidstone and Wolverhampton will close at the end of March 2024.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced a range of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives intended to improve efficiency across the justice system, reduce court backlogs, and deliver swifter justice for victims. The government will develop and test AI legal assistants, in partnership with legal experts and AI developers, to support routine legal tasks such as research and case analysis, with the aim of increasing productivity in the Crown Court and reducing delays, while ensuring any deployment is subject to controlled testing and strict safety and ethical standards. Judges are also preparing to use an AI tool to identify trial-ready cases and group similar hearings together to make better use of court resources. In addition, all probation officers in England and Wales have been equipped with Justice Transcribe, an AI transcription tool expected to reduce administrative burdens and save the equivalent of 18,750 days of staff time annually, enabling greater focus on offender supervision and public protection. A similar transcription tool is being trialled in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunals, with potential for wider use across courts and tribunals. These projects form part of the Prime Minister’s AI Exemplars programme and complement the recently launched AI Growth Labs, which are designed to support the development and testing of AI products for the legal sector.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced interest rate reductions for Court Funds Office (CFO) accounts, effective 9 January 2026, following the Bank of England (BoE)’s base rate decrease on 18 December 2025. The Special Account rate has been reduced from 4.0% to 3.75%, while the Basic Account rate has been decreased from 3.0% to 2.81%. The MoJ states that these adjustments are designed to cover CFO operating costs while keeping interest rates affordable for clients.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced interest rate reductions for Court Funds Office (CFO) accounts, effective 20 August 2025, following the Bank of England’s base rate decrease on 7 August 2025. The Special Account rate has been reduced from 4.25% to 4.0%, while the Basic Account rate has been decreased from 3.19% to 3.0%. The MoJ states that these adjustments are designed to cover CFO operating costs while keeping interest rates affordable for clients.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced interest rate reductions for Court Funds Office (CFO) accounts effective 30 May 2025, following the Bank of England's (BoE) base rate decrease on 8 May 2025. The Special Account rate has been reduced from 4.50% to 4.25%, while the Basic Account rate has decreased from 3.38% to 3.19%. The MoJ states the adjustments are designed to maintain CFO service costs while providing sustainable interest rates to clients.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that the Lord Chancellor has approved the appointment of Catherine Brown as interim chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB) from 1 January to 31 March 2026. Brown, who has served as an LSB Board member since 2019 will continue in the role pending the conclusion of recruitment for a permanent Chair. The appointment, made under the Legal Services Act 2007, follows consultation with the Lady Chief Justice and the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced draft amendments to section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (VPA 2024) to prevent the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that conceal criminal conduct. The current VPA 2024, s 17 makes NDAs void to the extent that they preclude a victim from disclosing information to specified categories of recipient. The proposed new VPA 2024, s 17 will allow victims of criminal conduct, or those who reasonably believe they are victims, to disclose information to anyone, including family, friends, employers and journalists, for any purpose. NDAs will be void insofar as they attempt to prevent such disclosures relating to criminal conduct or the response of an employer or other party to that conduct. The amendment will also empower the Secretary of State to make regulations setting criteria for ‘excepted agreements’ in limited, legitimate circumstances, and will include express exemptions for NDAs entered into by His Majesty in a private capacity, the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters. Supported by Victims Minister, Alex Davies-Jones MP, and campaigners such as Zelda Perkins of Can’t Buy My Silence UK, the reform forms part of the government’s Plan for Change to restore confidence in the justice system, strengthen victims’ rights, and help halve violence against women and girls.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced a partnership with OpenAI enabling UK businesses to store data on British servers for the first time, alongside deploying AI tools across the justice system. Over 1,000 probation officers will use Justice Transcribe, an AI transcription tool intended to save 240,000 administrative days annually. The initiative forms part of the government's AI Exemplars programme aimed at increasing AI adoption across public services.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that the Sentencing Act has received Royal Assent. The Act introduces an ‘earned progression model’ for prisoners serving standard determinate sentences, under which those who display poor behaviour will spend longer in custody. It maintains that offenders serving life sentences, indeterminate sentences for public protection and extended determinate sentences will not be released earlier than under existing arrangements. The Act also provides for enhanced community punishments, including new judicial powers to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sporting events and the creation of ‘restriction zones’ limiting access to certain areas. In addition, it introduces a judicial finding of domestic abuse at sentencing, enabling criminal justice agencies to better identify domestic abusers. To support these reforms, the probation budget will increase by up to £700m over the next three years. Implementation will be phased over two years, with changes to recall procedures expected in the coming months and the earned progression model due to begin in autumn 2026.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now among the first jurisdictions in the world to confirm in law that digital assets such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be recognised as personal property. Under the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, this recognition provides clearer legal protections and aligns digital assets with the treatment given to traditional forms of property. The Act establishes a new category of personal property specifically for digital assets, allowing them to be inherited, transferred and recovered in insolvency proceedings in the same way as traditional assets.