Archive for ministry of justice

Speedometer

Cutting red tape the sloooooooooow way: latest non-news from the Ministry of Justice

10 December 2012
Back in May I wrote: In 2010 I took up the issue of paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice, using a series of Freedom of Information requests to reveal the ludicrously over-bureaucratic safe driving polices in place at the MoJ: Despite the government’s rhetoric of cutting bureaucracy, the Ministry of Justice – one [...]

Anti-social UK Government failing to engage public online

Nice busy day in the office yesterday following the publication of our research into how Whitehall departments are using, or not using, social media. Both Gorkana and PR Week have given the research a nice big write-up, and here’s the video clip we did with PR Week, including the all-important comparison between myself and Justin Bieber: Here’s [...]

Where’s Steve Hilton to cut through red tape when you need him?

19 May 2012 ,
Back in 2010 I took up the issue of paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice, using a series of Freedom of Information requests to reveal the ludicrously over-bureaucratic safe driving polices in place at the MoJ: Despite the government’s rhetoric of cutting bureaucracy, the Ministry of Justice – one of the largest Whitehall [...]

Returning Officer pay was increased without any idea what it would cost

17 December 2010 , ,
A significant increase in the pay of some Returning Officers was quietly introduced by the then Labour government ahead of this year's general election but no estimate was made as to what the costs would be of rule changes that made the pay more generous.

Ministry of Justice set to review driving policy

8 December 2010 ,
A quick follow-up to my post Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice, which highlighted the hugely bureaucratic approach taken by the MoJ to safe driving at work (in contrast to the approach of other government departments) and which was widely picked up in the media (see here, here and here). The Ministry of [...]

News travels a little further

23 October 2010 ,
And lo, the Eastern Daily Press has also picked up on my story about the Ministry of Justice’s love for over-the-top paperwork. UPDATE: Stories also in the Yorkshire Post (22 October) and Daily Telegraph (22 October), though neither of these are online.
Ministry of Justice logo

News may travel quickly but it sometimes takes quite a while to start

22 October 2010 , ,
Following on from yesterday’s coverage in the Mail and the Times, my story about the MoJ’s widely over-the-top bureaucracy for staff who drive on work business has now also reached the Scotsman and the Eastern Daily Press. It’s an example of one of the curious habits of the media even in these internet-enabled, 24 hour [...]

Ministry of Justice’s paperwork overdose hits the media

21 October 2010 , , ,
My story Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice has hit the media today in a nice piece from Matthew Parris in The Times and in a long piece in the Daily Mail. If the latter’s piece sounds rather familiar when you read it, that’d be because the wording bears a remarkable resemblance to [...]

The Ministry of Justice runs into a little furniture bother

19 October 2010 , ,
Imagine the conversation later this year, somewhere in Whitehall: Civil servant Good news Minister. Our new arrangements for buying furniture are coming up to the end of their first year and everything is looking really good. Minister Excellent news. Do you mind letting me have some figures on how the arrangements have performed compared to [...]

Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice

13 October 2010 , ,
Despite the government’s rhetoric of cutting bureaucracy, the Ministry of Justice – one of the largest Whitehall departments and responsible for many important administrative systems – is spectacularly failing to set a good example with its own hugely bureaucratic approach to health and safety when people are driving as part of their work. The MoJ [...]