Alexy Buck is Chief Social Researcher for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), its agencies and arm’s length bodies. The Government Social Research community at the MoJ is a high-impact and vibrant group of around 200 professionals.

Alexy is also Deputy Director in the MoJ Analysis Directorate. She leads a unit with responsibilities for key strategic priorities and significant evaluation programmes, such as court reform evaluation.

Her unit’s Evidence and Partnerships Hub aims to maximise the use and impact of evidence and external expertise for MoJ decision-making. This includes being responsible for the MoJ’s published Areas of Research Interest, which highlights where new research can have the most impact for policy and practice.

The Evaluation and Prototyping Hub in Alexy’s unit is responsible for improving evaluation and making greater use of early prototyping to understand which justice policies and interventions work. The Hub is delivering on the ambitions set out in their published MoJ Evaluation and Prototyping Strategy of 2023.

Alexy is passionate about looking for new ways to open up dialogue and collaboration between the civil service, academic and research funders. She has sat on many national research advisory groups and has been a member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Strategic Advisory Network. Her unit includes embedded academics and has attracted multiple funding streams.

Before becoming a senior civil servant, Alexy was responsible for family justice research and analysis at the MoJ. Her background is outside of the central civil service, leading a research centre focused on access to justice.

Alexy is a long-term part-timer and previously worked in a successful job-share for over 7 years. She has championed both these valuable ways of working.