A new minister to oversee the charity and voluntary sector has been appointed.

Paul Goggins, who was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Correctional Services and Reducing Re-Offending, brings with him over 20 years’ experience in the social care and voluntary sectors. As well as a career as a social worker, he worked for NCH as a director of a community-based alternative to custody for juvenile offenders and prior to his move into politics in 1997 he was the director of Church Action on Poverty, a national church-based campaigning organisation.

He replaces Fiona Mactaggart, who will now have responsibility for the criminal justice system, including the National Offender Management Service and the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The move was welcomed by the NCVO which said it was pleased to see that a minister with experience of the sector had been chosen. Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the NCVO, said: “Paul Goggins starts at time when the voluntary sector agenda is exciting and challenging and we look forward to working with him on the Charities Bill, implementation of Changeup and much more besides.

“We’re sorry Fiona Mactaggat no longer has responsibility for our sector. She has worked tirelessly to champion voluntary and community organisations’ best interests in Government and her stewardship has seen us through a crucial period in both the sector’s development and its ever changing relationship with government.”

John Healey MP has been appointed as financial secretary and has responsibility for voluntary and community sector issues in the Treasury, including taxation, while Richard Caborn the minister for Sport in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to look after the lottery.