Dame Antonia Romeo, now the UK's Cabinet Secretary, is under scrutiny over her previous role overseeing the prison overcrowding crisis, which is forcing thousands of criminals to be released early. She led the Ministry of Justice for four years while plans to build new prison cells fell badly behind schedule, and critics including former prison governors say her department knew jails were nearing capacity yet failed to act decisively, calling it a "ticking timebomb" left for her successors and ministers to deal with.

During her tenure the MoJ delivered just 6,518 of a promised 20,000 new prison places, with the National Audit Office confirming the target will be missed by five years; she also faced criticism over signing a 10-year lease on HMP Dartmoor despite radon gas contamination rendering many cells unusable, and over the costly, later-reversed part-privatisation of the probation service. Ex-governors John Podmore and Ian Acheson accused her and the wider civil service of failing to intervene or take responsibility, while government sources countered that the crisis stems from Conservative-era decisions on sentencing and funding, and a spokesman defended her record, citing new prisons opened and places planned by 2031.