Ministry of Justice puts cap on staff, cuts senior role, looks at restructuring

Thursday, 22 February 2024

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has put a cap on staff, cut a senior role and is looking at restructuring part of its department as it eyes cost cuts.

In emails to staff, Chief Executive Andrew Kibblewhite anticipated a modest reduction in headcount over time, with the strategic leadership team running the ruler over every vacancy to decide whether to fill it.

MoJ has been asked to make 6.5% in savings.

On February 2, Kibblewhite sent two emails to staff on organisational restructure.

One email included his intention not to recruit for a replacement for Anouk Alexander, the deputy secretary of strategy, governance and finance, who left in December.

“It was only right given the current financial situation across government that I considered whether I should replace the role or if the work could be done another way,” Kibblewhite wrote.

“Now the time has come to realign and consolidate our back-office functions and there is opportunity to do that by looking at moving the teams that sit within SGF [the strategy, governance and finance group] to other business groups.

Kibblewhite said the move would likely be in two phases. He proposed the first being to “lift and shift” those SGF teams into other business groups, and the second would realign the teams “to make sure we are the most efficient that we can be”.

“I want to be upfront with you and say that I anticipate there will be savings from this, but I also want to make sure that our back office operates the best way that it can.”

In his second email Kibblewhite said they needed to “carefully manage our headcount” and to “ensure we don’t grow beyond”, the leadership team put a cap on the number of roles at the ministry. Business groups had to work to reach that by June.

They also assessed vacancies that came up to determine whether to rehire, with that approach needing to apply across the ministry, he said.

Kibblewhite also sent an email to staff in December regarding the new Government’s 100 Day Plan and its intention to make savings in the public service.

“I don’t think any of you will be surprised that SLT [the strategic leadership team] has decided to take a more conservative approach to recruitment, which will, over time, lead to a modest decrease in head-count.”

Kibblewhite said they had already been working on this since June “and have a lot of different saving initiatives on the go”.

“I do not expect to have to undertake any sort of large-scale staffing reduction programme. I do not think that would make sense or be necessary.

In an interview about ACT’s view on the public service last August, leader, now associate Finance Minister David Seymour said the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment should be slashed by up to 50%, while the Ministry of Justice could be spared as it “seems like an area where we're going to have to do a lot better”.