“Never Give Up, Never Surrender”

We do not have a “Mission Statement” at JRS. This is primarily because we do not really need one. If we did, we would certainly feel a little queasy about it, being down-to-earth northern types. We’d probably settle for something plagiarised and tongue-in-cheek like “Live long and prosper” from Star Trek.

Governmental Agencies do not have this degree of discretion and must communicate in the very worst of such platitudes. Take this from the first LAA Business Plan

Supporting Values

As employees of the Legal Aid Agency, our staff have become civil servants for the first time. Therefore as a new Executive Agency of the MoJ we are committed to demonstrating the values required of all civil servants as set out in the Civil Service Code.

Integrity – putting the obligations of public service above your own personal interests.
Honesty – being truthful and open.
Objectivity – basing your advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence.
Impartiality – acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving Governments of different political persuasions equally well.

Love “Objectivity”.

The substantive content is predictably not much better and how about this:

We will maintain a small team of directly employed lawyers in the Public Defender Service (PDS) as part of the Agency. The PDS provides an important service in safeguarding continuity of service against market failure, as well as providing a test bed for methods of delivery such as electronic working. The PDS provides high quality and objective policy input on a range of criminal justice system reform proposals and acts as a “sounding-board” for Agency and Government guidance, technical changes and training.

Those with more time than I might like to analyse how the latter upholds the former.

“To infinity and beyond”

Share
About Author: SP

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *