Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), the Ministry of Justice of the United Kingdom, has essentially control of probation, prisons and prevention of re-offending. The main role of interest in respect of the Ministry of Justice is the control that it exercises over the Court Service which plays an essential role in the process of granting orders in relation to the tracing, freezing, enforcement and repatriation of assets there is little further to add.

The Ministry of Justice also plays an important role in relation to the UK's Crown Dependencies which are important international financial centers in their own right. The Crown Dependencies are Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. They are not part of the UK and have their own directly elected legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal, legal systems and courts of law. They are not represented in the UK parliament and UK legislation does not extend to them.

The MOJ provides the main channel of communication between the UK government and the three crown dependencies. The MOJ processes legislation from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man for royal assent and consults with the islands on extending UK legislation to them.

When the UK ratifies an international treaty or agreement it does so on behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and any of the Crown Dependencies or overseas territories that wish the treaty to apply to them. It is not always possible to include Crown Dependencies or overseas territories in the instrument of ratification, so the scope of ratification can be extended later to include them.

For more information on the Crown Dependencies see http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/crown/crwdep.