Jonathan Jones
Treasury Solicitor and HM Procurator General
How did you tackle the biggest challenges facing your organisation in 2014?
I’ve been pleased to continue the work begun by my predecessor as Treasury Solicitor to create a new, stronger and more unified government legal function. Since taking up my post in March, I’ve overseen the merger of the legal teams advising DWP, DH and DfT with TSol, as well as the employment lawyers from HMRC. In addition, to help deliver the government’s commitment on commercial work, I’ve set up a new specialist commercial law group. Along with all the previous mergers, this adds up to a major organisational and management change for us.
But these structural changes are just the beginning. The challenge now is to build a culture where everyone feels part of a single organisation, and start getting the benefits in terms of consistently high standards of legal quality, a more flexible, efficient and joined-up service, and the best possible career offer for our people. I’m confident the end result will be worth it.
And that’s before I even mention the long list of legal topics we have handled – national security, immigration, devolution and constitutional reform, EU and ECHR issues and ebola, to name just a few, as well as continuing to work with our clients to manage consistently high volumes of litigation.
What are your department’s top priorities in the last months before the general election?
Essentially, pressing on with the programme of change to build a better shared legal service, which I’ve already described. At the same time, our lawyers will be absolutely focussed on continuing to deliver the government’s legal business – on devolution, welfare reform, deregulation, counter-terrorism, legal aid reform, HS2 and much else besides, including handling the various legal challenges, working on numerous Bills and drafting hundreds of statutory instruments.
What’s your favourite Christmas treat? And what makes you say “Bah, humbug!”?
You can’t really beat the combination of Bach and champagne (actually, that’s true at any time of year). But last year I had a burst pipe and a flooded kitchen on Boxing Day, which prompted slightly stronger language than “Bah humbug!”.