Enthusiasm for new laws

Home Office

A flurry of initiatives and policy reviews have marked out the Home Office and its head, Jack Straw, as one of the busiest departments of the new regime.

Mr Straw's enthusiasm for new legislation and his willingness to listen and act, such as setting up the inquiry into the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence and an all-out ban on handguns, have won him praise.

He has also had to grapple with the prison over-crowding crisis, for which he has won an extra pounds 43m from the Treasury. Prisons will be his biggest anxiety in the coming year and the most likely area for a political crisis if inmates riot or funds run out.

He has continued his theme of youth crime and greater responsibility for parents, much of which will be contained in the Crime and Disorder Bill. But he has also angered penal reformers, left wingers, and probation officers, by adopting many of the ideas of his predecessor, Michael Howard, and by performing a number of U-turns.

Some of these, such as the use of a prison ship and giving the go-ahead for more private jails, have been dictated by cost. But his decision in favour of five "child jails" and to extend the use of electronic tagging are reversals. Others - naming and shaming juveniles, banning driving licences for non motoring offences and outlawing underage drinking in public - are straight lifts from the Tory handbook.

Despite growing discontent from some previous allies, Mr Straw and his department have shown a strong determination not to be derailed and are expected to continue with further fundamental changes to the criminal justice system.

At the Lord Chancellor's department, long-overdue reform is also in the air, with promised legislation on freedom of information and incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jason Bennetto