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A Whitehall shake-up could see the Ministry of Justice scrapped and some of its powers moved to the Home Office, the Daily Telegraph understands
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, is expected to be given responsibility for sentencing in the Ministry of Justice, a government source told the Telegraph.
The move would be seen as a first step in a Whitehall shake-up to take sentencing and possibly probation out of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) altogether and given to the Home Office.
Mr Malthouse was described as a “lynchpin” of the plans by a source close to the discussions. “The long term aim is to merge the Home Office with elements of the MoJ.”
Internal discussions have taken place about replacing the MoJ with a “constitutional affairs” ministry, which would have responsibilities including judicial reform and plans for a British Bill of Rights to replace the European Convention on Human Rights.
A wider restructuring of Whitehall is increasingly expected to take place in the first half of next year, sources said this week. Meanwhile Tory MPs increasingly expect another reshuffle at the start of 2021.
Meanwhile plans for an expected merger of the £14billion international aid department into the Foreign Office are already underway.
Ministers including James Cleverly, Lord Goldsmith, Baroness Sugg and Nigel Adams have been given roles in both departments with officials expected to "shuffle" between the two. Number 10 has previously played down reports of mergers between the Foreign Office and DfID.
During last week’s reshuffle, Mr Malthouse and Chris Philp were appointed ministers in both the Home Office and the MoJ.
The Home Office has since discussed freeing up Mr Malthouse from some of his Home Office duties to be able to take on more of the brief in the Ministry of Justice.
Mr Philp, another Home Office minister, is expected to be made responsible for immigration, while also being a junior minister in Justice.
One of the Home Secretary’s advisers, Alex Wild, was also moved to the Ministry of Justice in what has been seen as another sign of building links between the two.
One source said that once ministers start covering both departments, merging should then become easy: “When the formal merger happens a lot of the officials will say - we’ve already been covering this”.
The plans for the Home Office and MoJ would effectively reverse the 2007 changes when some of the Home Secretary’s responsibility were combined with the Department for Constitutional Affairs to create the MoJ.
Meanwhile Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, has been accused of trying to water down the government's strategic review of defence and foreign policy.
The cross government review is being led by Prof John Bew in No10's policy unit and was intended to be an ambitious look at defence and foreign policy and how the UK interacts with the world.
Boris Johnson is understood to have personally requested Prof Bew to take charge of the review, originally designed to reimagine Britain's place in the world and the tools it needs to do to achieve it.
However the Telegraph understands Sir Mark is showing “resistance to change” and wants the review to purely focus on the finances - what can be funded and what can be cut.
Meanwhile sources have claimed Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief aide, sees the Bew review as a chance for freeing up money to fund his “pet projects” - including a British “DARPA”, based on the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which created an early version of the internet.
“There are big fears the Bew review is coming under joint attack from Sedwill and Cummings,” a source said.
Another source said Mr Cummings is not interested in the “view of the world” aspects of the review: “For him it’s all about innovation, science.”
A “showdown” is expected at a planned meeting with the Prime Minister in the Spring. Sir Mark is expected to “fill the room with his people.”