Lord Chancellor's Department
The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales.
Ministerial Department overview
Created in 1885[1] as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancellor in his day-to-day duties, the department grew in power over the course of the 20th century, and at its peak had jurisdiction over the entire judicial system and a staff of over 22,000.[2] In 2003, it was succeeded by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (now the Ministry of Justice).
Remit[edit]
At the time of its merger the Lord Chancellor's Department was charged with appointing and advising on the appointment of judges, running the court system and a certain number of tribunals and assisting in the reform of the English law.[1] To this end it controlled the Public Trust Office, the Courts Service, the Official Solicitor's Office, the Office of the Judge Advocate General, the Legal Aid Board and several more government agencies.[1]
Structure[edit]
The office was run by the Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office, a senior member of the Civil Service who also served as Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.[3] The office he ran was initially small, consisting of five individuals; the Permanent Secretary, his personal secretary, the personal secretary to the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of Presentations (who advised the Lord Chancellor on the appointment of senior members of the Church of England) and the Secretary of Commissions (who advised the Lord Chancellor on the appointment of magistrates).[12] The department stayed small compared to other ministerial departments; in the 1960s it had a staff of only 13 trained lawyers and a few secretaries.[13] The passing of the Courts Act 1971 and the additional duties it gave to the Lord Chancellor's Department forced it to expand, and by the time it ceased to exist as an independent department it had a staff of 12,000 direct employees, 10,000 indirect employees, 1,000 buildings (more than any other government department) and a yearly budget of £2.4 billion.[14]
Peculiarities[edit]
The Lord Chancellor's Department was significantly different from other government departments in a number of ways. Until 1992 it had no representative in the House of Commons; as Speaker of the House of Lords the Lord Chancellor could not sit in the House of Commons.[15] The department was also exempt from being scrutinised by the parliamentary select committees, something which changed in 1990.[15] The Permanent Secretary also had to be a barrister of at least seven years standing, and the Deputy Secretary always succeeded the Permanent Secretary when he retired.[16] Both of these changed in 1990.[16]