Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether a decision to bring a judicial review of the coroner's recent findings of no justification at the inquest into the deaths by military gunfire of four armed IRA men at Clonoe, County Tyrone in 1992 has been taken by the Attorney General; and, if not, why not.

Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General

Paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May states:

“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”

This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention and it applies to your question.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution rates (a) serious and (b) violent crime in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Reducing serious and violent crime is integral to this Government’s Safer Streets Mission and commitment to halve knife crime in a decade.

Our new Crime and Policing Bill will back our police by giving them enhanced and tougher powers to keep our streets safe, to tackle anti-social behaviour, and to crack down on knife crime.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes serious and violent crime robustly, providing early investigative advice on complex and serious offending to build strong cases and deliver justice for victims.

The CPS is working with cross-government partners to support the delivery of the Safer Streets Mission, and all CPS guidance and training is kept under constant review to ensure front-line prosecutors are equipped to prosecute these serious offences. Serious and violent crime encompasses many different types of crime but is more commonly associated with drug crime, knife crime, gun crime, and homicide.

In 2023-2024, the CPS prosecuted the following serious and violent offences in the West Midlands Police force area, in which the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency is located:

• 1,249 defendants for drug offences under the principal category offence for drugs (which includes possession of controlled drugs, supplying or offering to supply controlled drugs, unlawful importation of controlled drugs, and manufacturing a scheduled substance) (up from 942 in 2022-23).

• 1,645 offences for possession of a knife under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and Prevention of Crime Act 1953 (up from 1,408 in 2022-23).

• 189 offences under the Firearms Act 1968 (up from 117 in 2022-23).

• 124 defendants were prosecuted for homicide offences under the principal offence category for homicide (which includes offences of murder, attempted murder, causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult, child destruction, conspiring or soliciting to commit murder and causing death by dangerous or careless driving) (up from 73 in 2022-23).

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecutions in cases of violence against women and girls in Birmingham, Edgbaston constituency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a national emergency and through the Safer Streets Mission, this Government will deliver on our ambition to halve VAWG in a decade. A key part will be delivering effective prosecutions, and we continue to see improvements in the prosecution of VAWG offences.

As Solicitor General, I superintend the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which is continuing to transform its approach to adult rape prosecution through the implementation of its new national operating model, based on robust evidence from Operation Soteria. Through this work, the CPS has seen substantial increases in referral, charge, and prosecution volumes for adult rape.

These improvements have also informed the Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan with policing which launched in November 2024. Better partnership with policing has already led to modest initial increases in domestic abuse referrals, setting a strong foundation for future improvements.

To address the increasingly complexity of VAWG offending and the holistic needs of victims, the CPS will also begin implementation of its 2025-30 VAWG strategy this spring. This will ensure prosecutors have the right skills and tools to prosecute VAWG effectively.

I was delighted to give a keynote address at a joint CPS, Home Office, and National Police Chiefs’ Council conference on tackling honour-based abuse held in Birmingham last week. On the same day, I met with the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the West Midlands and the Area’s Victim Liaison Unit and heard directly from CPS staff about the critical work they are doing to prosecute VAWG offences.

In the West Midlands police force area in 2023-24, the CPS prosecuted 1,596 domestic abuse flagged cases (an increase from 1,543 in 2022-23), 135 rape flagged cases (an increase from 108 in 2022-23), and 419 sexual offences (excluding rape flagged) cases (an increase from 295 in 2022-23).

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 36473 on Human Trafficking: Cambridgeshire, how many of the (a) 56 cases flagged for modern slavery and (b) 11 cases with a monitoring flag for child abuse, involved (i) victims and (ii) perpetrators from (A) Guinea-Bissau and (B) Portugal.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has conducted a full manual review of the 11 case files with a monitoring flag for child abuse. It could not ascertain whether the defendants and victims were from Guinea-Bissau or Portugal from the information provided by the police.

The CPS were unable to undertake a full manual review of the remaining cases with a monitoring flag for modern slavery as to obtain this information would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions there have been of (a) British nationals and (b) individuals resident in the UK with respect to the general bribery offences under the Bribery Act 2010 broken down by (i) type or sub-type of offence and (ii) prosecuting organisation or agency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.

General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)

The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 7 Bribery Act 2010

The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017

The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, broken down by (i) type or sub-type of offence and (ii) prosecuting organisation or agency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.

General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)

The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 7 Bribery Act 2010

The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017

The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions under Section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017, broken down by (a) type or sub-type of offence and (b) prosecuting organisation or agency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.

General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)

The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 7 Bribery Act 2010

The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.

Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017

The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2025 to Question 39549 on Nicholas Prosper, if she will take steps to inform hon. Members when a decision has been made.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

I can confirm that either the Attorney General or I will write to the hon. Member to inform him of the decision.

Sentences examined by the Attorney General’s Office under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme are published on GOV.UK. This includes the sentences examined, the outcome, and details of the cases. This information is updated weekly and I would invite the hon. Members to review the data published.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many staff her Department has seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Secondments are one way of bringing talent and experience into the Civil Service for short periods of time and has been used by successive governments.

Secondments are arranged at a business unit level and data is held at business unit Level.

Since July 2024, the Attorney General’s Office has not seconded any staff from Hakluyt.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution rates for (a) serious and (b) violent crime cases in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

We are taking strong action as part of our Plan for Change to tackle serious and violent crime.

Our new Crime and Policing Bill will back our police by giving them enhanced and tougher powers to keep our streets safe, to tackle anti-social behaviour, and to crack down on knife crime.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes serious and violent crime robustly, providing early investigative advice on complex and serious offending to build strong cases and deliver justice for victims.

The CPS is working with cross-government partners to support the delivery of the Safer Streets Mission and all CPS guidance and training is kept under constant review to ensure front-line prosecutors are equipped to prosecute these serious offences.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of referring the sentencing of Nicholas Prosper to the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme allows the Law Officers to refer a sentence which appears unduly lenient to the Court of Appeal for it to review. If referred, the Court has the power to increase the sentence if it agrees that it is unduly lenient.

There is a high threshold for a successful ULS reference. The sentence must be not just lenient but unduly so, for example if the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

In this specific case, I can confirm my office has received a number of requests to review the sentencing of this individual under the ULS scheme.

The Attorney General and I have 28 days from the date of sentence to consider the case and decide whether to refer it to the Court of Appeal.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions for child-trafficking there have been in Cambridgeshire since 2010.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

This Government is committed to tackling the scourge of child trafficking. Children who are exploited by gangs for criminal purposes will now receive greater protection under the Government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill, with the introduction of a new offence of child criminal exploitation. The Bill represents the biggest package of measures on crime and policing for decades, with new measures to cut crime and make our streets safer.

From January 2010 to September 2024, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted 56 cases flagged for modern slavery in the Cambridge Police Force Area.

Data is recorded by defendant, rather than victim, and therefore modern slavery flagged cases may involve adult or child victims. Of these 56 cases, 11 cases also had a case monitoring flag applied for child abuse, which covers several different offences, including child trafficking.

The CPS is working closely with law enforcement via the Modern Slavery Criminal Justice Action Group – a joint working group led by CPS National Lead for Human Trafficking and the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime – to identify areas of improvement to promote early advice and increase referrals and prosecutions of modern slavery cases.

Found: Section 13 currently allows the High Court, with the permission of the Attorney General, to quash an

Found: member or by a request from others including the Secretary of State, a relevant Coroner or Attorney General

Found: We reiterate our recommendation in our earlier report that the Attorney General

Found: Kris Kobach (1998) – Attorney General of Kansas Dr Meena Seshamani (1999) – incoming Health Secretary

Found: That network includes Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Home Office, Attorney General Office (AGO),

Found: There seems to be within politics, and indeed between the Attorney-General and the shadow Attorney-General

Found: Sir Geoffrey Cox KC MP, for instance, was widely respected as Attorney General precisely because he

Found: the Legacy Act therefore curtailed a whole cohort of inquests and stripped powers from the Attorney General

Found: especially when you have promised people that you are going to go through this process, and the Attorney General

Found: The Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor and the Attorney-General have written to the Law Commission

Found: important issues will be extremely helpful ahead of the Committee's forthcoming hearings with the Attorney General

Found: Lord Waldegrave of North Hill: There is an argument put forward by, for example, the Attorney-General

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has received advice from the Attorney General on activity originating from military bases in Cyprus since July 2024.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.

Our military activities at the Sovereign Base Areas are central to the UK's humanitarian and hostage rescue efforts, support the UK's efforts with international partners to de-escalate conflict and reinforce stability. The use of the military bases is in line with international humanitarian law and with our humanitarian objectives.

Found: minimised the use of the powers in the Bill as much as possible and we have worked closely with the Attorney-General—who

Found: whether the government’s “new approach” to the use of delegated legislation, as set out by Attorney General

Found: families; (b) healthcare professionals; (c) the Director of Public Prosecutions; (d) the Attorney General

Found: minimised the use of the powers in the Bill as much as possible and we have worked closely with the Attorney-General—who

Found: Chambers 0086 Mr Paul Santamaria QC.pdf (nsw.gov.au) The Hon Greg Smith SC Former NSW Attorney-General

Found: power has a clear and demonstrable justification, and that the drafting is consistent with Attorney General

Found: whether the government’s “new approach” to the use of delegated legislation, as set out by Attorney General

Found: secondments of staff; favourable costs awarded; cost awards made by the courts in favour of the Attorney General

Found: HM Attorney General; b. Director of Public Prosecutions; c. Crown Prosecution Service; or d.

Found: HM Attorney General; b. Director of Public Prosecutions; c. Crown Prosecution Service; or d.

Found: In 1981, the Attorney General issued new guidelines (AG’s Guidelines) on the criminal disclosure process

Found: In 1981, the Attorney General issued new guidelines (AG’s Guidelines) on the criminal disclosure pro

Found: I have even gone toe-to-toe with the then Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox across the Dispatch Box from

Found: March 2025 by: Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, UK Stefan Blättler, Attorney General

Found: It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions Northern Ireland who is appointed by the Attorney General

Found: The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, France’s Parquet National Financier (PNF) and the Office of the Attorney General

Found: Both Bills were subsequently referred to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General and the Advocate General

Found: Both Bills were subsequently referred to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General and the Advocate General