Minister of State for Prisons and Probation

Minister of State for Prisons and Probation
Royal Arms of Her Majesty's Government
Incumbent Victoria Atkins since 16 September 2021
Ministry of Justice
Seat	Westminster, London
Appointer	The Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister
Term length	At Her Majesty's pleasure
Salary	£113,612 (entitled to £116,299)
Website	www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--61

The Minister of State for Prisons and Probation is a mid-level ministerial office in the Ministry of Justice.

The office has switched between being of Minister of State and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State 'rank'.

The office is currently simply designated as 'Minister of State' gov.uk website,^[1] but its responsibilities remain very similar to the previous Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation.^[2]

Responsibilities[]

The minister currently has responsibility of the following policy areas:^[1]

• Prison operations, policy, reform and industrial relations
• Probation services, policy, reform and industrial relations
• Public protection (including Parole Board, Imprisonment for Public Protection and Serious Further Offences)
• Offender health
• Female offenders
• Transgender offenders
• Veteran offenders
• Foreign national offenders (joint work with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Immigration Compliance and the Courts)
• Offender rehabilitation and release
• Reducing Reoffending (joint work with the Minister of State for Crime and Policing)
• Extremism, Release On Temporary License and Home Detention Curfew
• Electronic monitoring (joint work with Minister of State for Crime and Policing)
• Youth Justice

The minister also provides support on Global Britain and the promotion of legal services.

List of Ministers for Prisons[]

Name		Portrait	Took office	Left office	Political party	Prime Minister
Position created out of Minister of State for Home Affairs Minister of State for Prisons
	Ann Widdecombe MP for Maidstone		28 February 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative		John Major (ll)
	Joyce Quin MP for Gateshead East and Washington West		2 May 1997	28 July 1998	Labour		Tony Blair (I)
	The Lord Williams of Mostyn		28 July 1998	28 July 1999
	Charles Clarke MP for Norwich South		July 1999	June 2001
	Keith Bradley MP for Manchester, Withington		June 2001	May 2002			Tony Blair (II)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probations
	Hilary Benn MP for Leeds Central		29 May 2002	13 May 2003	Labour		Tony Blair (II)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Criminal Justice, Race and Victims
	Fiona Mactaggart MP for Slough		13 June 2003	5 May 2006	Labour		Tony Blair (II+III)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation Services
	Gerry Sutcliffe MP for Bradford South		5 May 2006	29 June 2007	Labour		Tony Blair (III)
Minister of State for Justice and Equalities
	Maria Eagle MP for Liverpool Garston		2 July 2007	6 May 2010	Labour		Gordon Brown (I)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice
	Crispin Blunt MP for Reigate, Surrey		6 May 2010	4 September 2012	Conservative		David Cameron (Coalition)
	Jeremy Wright MP for Kenilworth and Southam		6 September 2012	15 July 2014
	Andrew Selous MP for South West Bedfordshire		16 July 2014	16 July 2016
							David Cameron (II)
	Sam Gyimah MP for East Surrey		17 July 2016	9 January 2018			Theresa May (I)
							Theresa May (II)
Minister of State for Prisons
	Rory Stewart MP for Penrith and The Border		9 January 2018	1 May 2019	Conservative		Theresa May (II)
	Robert Buckland MP for South Swindon		9 May 2019	24 July 2019
	Lucy Frazer MP for South East Cambridgeshire		25 July 2019	4 March 2021			Boris Johnson (I)
							Boris Johnson (II)
	Alex Chalk MP for Cheltenham		4 March 2021	10 September 2021
	Lucy Frazer MP for South East Cambridgeshire		10 September 2021	16 September 2021
	Victoria Atkins MP for Louth and Horncastle		16 September 2021	Incumbent

References[]

See also[]

• Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
• Her Majesty's Prison Service