Amy Rees was appointed as the HMPPS Director General Chief Executive Officer in August 2022.

As Chief Executive, Amy provides leadership and sets the strategic direction for the Agency. Amy is responsible for working with a wide range of stakeholders in order to carry out the orders of the courts in England and Wales, to protect the public and reduce reoffending. Amy leads on delivering change and reforming the prison and probation service, she is responsible for performance and has oversight of all HMPPS operations (working closely with the Director General of Operations). Amy is the HMPPS Accounting Officer.

Amy was previously the Director General of Probation, Wales and Youth in HMPPS. In this role she was responsible for all probation services in England and Wales, prisons in Wales and Youth Custody Services. As well as the Ministry of Justice’s relationship with the Welsh Government.

Amy’s other previous roles include Director of HMPPS in Wales and Strategy, where she was responsible for HMPPS operations in Wales and setting the strategy for the whole of the Agency, delivering an organisational vision and preparations for fiscal events. Additionally, Amy spent two years as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Justice, acting as a bridge between ministers and the department. During this time Amy led the Private Office Directorate through a general election, spending review and Brexit. Amy worked with three Justice Secretaries.

Amy started her career in the Prison Service and worked at several establishments including HMP Lewes, High Down and Bristol, before being appointed Governor at HMP Brixton in 2008.

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Jim Barton is currently the Executive Director for Change in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.  In this role Jim is responsible for the programme that will build 20,000 new prison places (the second largest infrastructure programme in Government), the Electronic Monitoring service (which has expanded by more than 100% in the last 3 years) and overall oversight of our Change Portfolio of c20 GMPP programmes.

Jim has spent most of his 20 year civil service career working in change delivery within the criminal justice system.  Most recently he was SRO for the Probation Reform Programme which successfully renationalised the probation service in 2021 after the challenges of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms.

Jim’s ambition for the rest of his career is to continue to make an impact in delivering successful change and reform into large and complex operational organisations.