Government seen set to cut 10,000 jobs

By John Bowker

LONDON (Reuters) - The government is set to cut nearly 10,000 jobs from its Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as part of a round of budget cuts to battle the tough economic climate, The Times newspaper said on Wednesday.

But a spokeswoman for the Ministry said although the division was making nearly 1 billion pounds worth of cuts, no decision had been made on jobs and that only back office and support departments were likely to be affected.

She added that the Ministry had been created from a combination of other government divisions around 18 months ago, producing a duplication of resources.

"There is some duplication in back office and support services that we do need to streamline, but no decision has been made on any job cuts," the spokeswoman told Reuters.

"Under the agreement reached in the last Comprehensive Spending Review, it has long been the case that the Ministry of Justice is seeking efficiency savings over the next three years. This was set out in our annual report published some months ago," she added.

The Times report said the government planned to make 900 million pounds of savings at the department. 10,000 job losses would represent around a tenth of the division's work force, it added.

The newspaper said the budget cuts could lead to the closure of some 100 courts, but the MoJ spokeswoman said no "front line services" such as courts would be affected.

"I do not recognise that," she said.

(Reporting by John Bowker; Editing by Ted Kerr, Gary Hill)