Attorney General

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants prosecuted, referred, acquitted, or convicted of offences created by s58-59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and s1 of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. To establish number and outcomes of prosecutions where these offences were charged would require a manual review of case files and this would be at disproportionate cost.

Management information is available which shows the number of offences of charged by way of Sections 58 and 59 (administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion / procuring drugs, instruments to cause abortion) and Section 1 (child destruction) in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences from 1^st April 2015 to 31^st March 2025.

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

The offence of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 is not within the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme as it is not an indictable only offence and is not specified in statute as qualifying for review under the scheme.

As the number of individuals is five or fewer, across the AGO and the Law Officer Departments, I am unable to disclose the figure. This is to protect against the risk that individuals could be identified, in line with our obligations under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

By long standing convention, whether the Law Officers have been asked to provide advice, and the contents of any such advice, is not disclosed outside Government.

This convention protects the Law Officers’ ability as chief legal advisers to the Government to give full and frank legal advice and provides the fullest guarantee that government business will be conducted at all times in light of thorough and candid legal advice.

The Solicitor General has not had any such meetings.

The Attorney General has never engaged in discussion with Dapo Akande on the UK-Mauritius Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago.

Departments are required to publish quarterly, the latest of which was released on 16 December 2025. You are referred to Public sector employment - Office for National Statistics for the information you have requested which states that 11,720 people are employed across all the Law Officers Departments.

The CPS is committed to increasing the number of rape cases brought to court each year, and is working closely with other criminal justice partners to ensure that access to justice is not delayed.

The CPS continues to deliver the RASSO National Operating Model (NOM) developed in consultation with stakeholders to ensure a consistently high standard of decision making in rape cases. A key component of model is the offer of early advice (EA) to police to strengthen collaboration and help build the strongest cases from the outset by enabling police to seek advice from a prosecutor during the early stages of a case.

This change means that more cases are coming to the CPS earlier than before, impacting their data on timeliness. The enhanced EA offer was trialled first in the CPS pathfinder Areas London, West Midlands, South West and North East. The South East ran an EA pilot alongside these pathfinders.

The below table provides the number of rape-flagged cases awaiting a decision from the CPS that were first submitted to the CPS three or more years ago, by CPS Area as of the 25th of February 2026. These will include cases which are under further investigation by the police, and cases which have been subject to one or more legal reviews in the past but have not yet been subject to a final charging decision:

Whilst there are 46 cases which have not had a final legal decision after three or more years, there are no RASSO cases that have been awaiting a legal review for three or more years following initial submission or subsequent investigation by the police.

Contracts issued to staff do not record the information requested. Hybrid working is an informal, non-contractual agreement.

The AGO is committed to flexible working and the business benefits that it offers, including supporting the Civil Service priority of ensuring continued, effective and productive delivery of the work carried out by civil servants across the full range of services.

The AGO operates a ‘hybrid’ approach, led by business needs, and as a result many employees work both from home and in the workplace on an informal basis.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) issues legal guidance on prosecuting racist and religious hate crime, available on their website. To support effective application of this guidance, all new CPS prosecutors receive mandatory training on hate crime, including religiously aggravated offending.

A Chief Crown Prosecutor National Lead for hate crime oversees a network of Hate Crime Coordinators and Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor leads, who provide specialist advice, support casework quality and promote consistent decision-making in every regional CPS Area. They oversee a robust assurance scheme which includes bi-monthly checks of the religiously aggravated hate crime cases in every Area. These checks examine whether such cases have been appropriately identified, and review the case strategy and handling, including whether applications are made to uplift the sentence on conviction. Feeback on casework is provided directly to prosecutors and shared at a regional and national level to identify shared challenges and best practice.

Engaging with communities affected by hate crime is important to build trust and support victims. The CPS has a strong record of engaging openly with a wide range of stakeholders, including academics, the voluntary sector, advocacy groups and community representatives. This helps to ensure that CPS policy and legal guidance reflect best practice and is responsive to communities’ needs. Across every Area and nationally, the CPS holds regular Hate Crime Scrutiny Panels for external scrutiny of its performance on hate crime, including examination of cases of religious hatred.

The Attorney General has never engaged in discussion with Philippe Sands KC on the UK-Mauritius Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago.

As you may know, the Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by the Law Officers, or requested of the Law Officers, and the Convention applies to your question.

The Law Officers’ Convention can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:

“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.”

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of offences charged by way of the Vagrancy Act 1824 in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences from 1^st April 2020 to 30^th September 2025.

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants prosecuted. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Volumes provided for the financial year 2020-2021 have been impacted due to court closures and recovery during Covid-19 from Mid-March to the end of June 2020.

In 2024-25 there were a total of 61 nights spent in hotels by departmental staff where overnight stays were essential for departmental business. These are broken down in the following table.

For the hotels that do not have a star rating, these are classed as budget hotels.

The public sector duty regarding socio-economic inequalities will apply to the public authorities listed in section 1(3) of the Equality Act 2010. That list includes a Minister of the Crown. The duty will therefore apply to the Law Officers as Ministers of the Crown.

The duty is not yet in force in England. Once in force, the duty will require public authorities, when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise their functions, to have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage.

Offences relating to forced marriages are created by s121 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which came into force in June 2014. Section 121 was further amended in February 2023 when s121(3A) was inserted making it an offence to force a child under the age of 18 into a marriage.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information from 2015 which shows the number of offences charged by way of s121 (forced marriage) in which a prosecution commenced. Table 1 below shows the number of these offences from 1^st April 2015 to 30^th September 2025.

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

In addition to the offence-based data, management information is held showing the number of defendants flagged with the forced marriage monitoring flag who were prosecuted from 1^st April 2010 to 30^th September 2025. Table 2 shows the number of flagged defendants prosecuted during this period.

The CPS forced marriage monitoring flag applies to any person who commits an offence under the law of England and Wales if he or she (a) uses violence, threats, or any other form of coercion for the purpose of causing another person to enter into a marriage, and (b) believes, or ought reasonably to believe, that the conduct may cause the other person to enter into the marriage without free and full consent.

The CPS define ‘honour’ based abuse as an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation coercion or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial, or emotional abuse) which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and/ or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family and/or community's code of behaviour. These data are accurate only to the extent that the flag is accurately applied.

Management information is available from 2010 which shows the number of prosecuted defendants flagged with the so-called honour-based abuse monitoring flag. The number of prosecuted defendants last year were at their highest level for seven years.

Table 1 (below) shows this information from 1^st April 2010 to 30^th September 2025, and Table 2 provides the same information by the Principal Offence Category allocated to the defendant at the conclusion of the prosecution proceeding.

Table 1 – Prosecuted defendants charged with ‘honour’ based abuse monitoring flag

Table 2 – Prosecuted defendants by principal offence category and flagged with the ‘honour’ based abuse monitoring flag

Data source: CPS Case Management Information System

The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions through its Case Management System (CMS). The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Act 2007.

There were a number of similar prosecutions at the time which were responded to in the same manner and timeline. Between 9 and 14 August, the AG responded to 14 other applications for consent in similar matters. 11 of those had a decision within 24 hours, a similar timescale to that in which consent to prosecute was granted in respect of Lucy Connolly.

Certain offences require Law Officer consent to prosecute, and inciting racial hatred is one such offence. The Attorney General provided consent to the DPP to prosecute for this case under the Public Order Act 1986.

When providing consent, the Law Officers must be satisfied that the evidential test and the public interest test of the Code for Crown Prosecutors are met. This case and all similar cases were considered by reference to the test in the usual way.

When applying for consent, the CPS will independently provide an indication of proposed timescales for consent to be in place, and wherever possible the AGO will work to those.

The AGO or its sponsored departments do not offer payroll deduction facility to employees to enable them to join a credit union.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of prosecuted defendants flagged with the modern slavery (human trafficking) monitoring flag where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same case. The data is derived using a manual process as the CPS Case Management Information System does not report this information. As with any manual exercise, the data may be subject to errors in processing and the information is for operational use only.

The table below shows the flagged prosecution data (where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same cases) for the last three calendar years ending 31^st December 2024.

The CPS define modern slavery as the following – for offences committed prior to 31^st July 2015 ss57-59A Sexual Offences Act 2003, s4 Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, s71 Coroners and Justice 2009 and for offences committed after the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force on the 31^st July 2015, s1, 2 and 4 of the Act. Included in the definition are the inchoate versions of the listed offences.

The Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by, or requested of, the Law Officers. It can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:

“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.”

Indicating whether or not the Law Officers have recused themselves from a particular matter would itself breach the Law Officers’ Convention.

However, the Attorney General’s Office has a rigorous process for identifying and dealing with conflicts and potential conflicts that arise from Law Officers’ former practice. As part of that process, the AGO adopts a cautious and beyond reproach threshold to any conflicts or potential conflicts. These arrangements are long-standing and part of a standard practice that has applied across successive Administrations.

The Law Officers have not had any such correspondence.

In 2024 Public Bodies, including Government departments were able to request a free portrait of the King, for display in the department.

The Attorney General’s Office received a portrait through the Cabinet Office’s scheme. The Government Legal Department did not receive a portrait.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and International Criminal Court (ICC) are international courts based respectively in France and the Netherlands. The UK is a State Party to both the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Rome Statute, the international treaties which established the ECtHR and ICC respectively. It is also a founding member of both instruments.

The Human Rights Act 1998 and the International Criminal Court Act 2001 give effect to the UK's obligations under the ECHR and Rome Statute. We respect the independence of both courts.

The SFO has well established formal policies and guidance aimed at protecting whistleblowers who report allegations of criminality. All whistleblowers who report to the SFO are dealt with by appropriately trained, nationally NPCC accredited members of staff whose role is to engage with whistleblowers and understand what is required to protect these people from retaliation or harm of any kind. The SFOs whistleblowing handling processes have also been fully reviewed and strengthened over the past year to ensure that all reports continue to be handled in accordance with national guidance.

The Government’s recently published Anti-Corruption Strategy commits to explore opportunities to reform the UK’s approach to whistleblowing in the employment context.

It is not possible to identify where prosecutions of fraud are specifically related to paid ad spoofing in the no win no fee sector, as this would require manual checks at a cost disproportionate to the public interest.

In the 12 months ending June 2025, the CPS prosecuted 7,446 defendants, where Fraud and Forgery was the principal offence. In the same period, the CPS charged 77.3% of all Fraud and Forgery category cases that were referred to it by law enforcement and maintained a consistent conviction rate of 86.5%.

The AGO does not employ any Civil Servants whose role primarily focusses on (a) transgender policy, (b) diversity, (c) equity and (d) inclusion.

The Attorney General’s Office has not conducted any feasibility studies within the time period, as such there has been no cost to the public purse.

The Contempt of Court Act 1981 is clear that publishing information that creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice or impediment to any active proceedings can be contempt of court. These rules and restrictions are in place to ensure that trials are fair and justice is delivered.

The Government recognises that social media is putting these long-established rules under strain especially in cases where partial or inaccurate information appears online. This is why we asked the Law Commission to expedite part of their review on contempt of court. In November 2025, the Law Commission published part 1 of their report setting out recommendations for a new framework of contempt liability. The Government is considering their recommendations.

The Government Legal Profession Summer Diversity Scheme provides valuable work experience to those under-represented in the legal profession. The scheme is open to candidates from a wide-range of backgrounds, providing they meet the eligibility criteria, including white British people. There are no plans to change this for the 2026 scheme.

The overall vacancy rate for ‘Crown Prosecutors’ across the 14 regional, geographic areas that make up the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is 4.5% (at the end of December 2025). The table below includes the regional breakdown for CPS vacancy rates applicable to these legal roles for December 2025 against the three preceding years only*.

*The CPS does not hold information on vacancy rates dating back five years and has therefore provided the three years preceding December 2025 only.

Digital Identity policy is in development, with a dedicated team inside the Cabinet Office working to develop the proposals.

Costs in this Spending Review period will be met within the existing Spending Review settlements.

We are inviting the public to have their say in the upcoming consultation as we develop a safe, secure, and inclusive system for the UK. No final decisions will be made until after the consultation.

The Protection of Children Act 1978 already includes ‘pseudo’ images of children within the definition of indecent images. Therefore, any sexualised images of children produced by AI will already be covered by the legislation surrounding indecent images, and consequently already fall within ULS scheme.

Without commenting on individual cases, the government’s robust conflict process would clearly preclude Law Officers having any involvement in cases in which they were instructed for other parties prior to appointment.

By longstanding convention, recognised in paragraph 5.14 of the Ministerial Code, the fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised, and the content of their advice, must not be disclosed outside government without their authority.

The department has conducted a search of the electronic materials currently available to it. No data on communications within the scope of this question was identified.

The dates of the bribery offences are a matter of public record, the earliest being 6 December 2018.

The Law Officers will not deposit case papers in this matter.

This was a CPS prosecution and the Attorney General’s involvement was only to provide consent for one of the offences charged. This offence has been left to lie on file, following pleas from Nathan Gill to substantive offences of bribery.

The overall vacancy rate for ‘Crown Prosecutors’* across the 14 regional, geographic areas that make up the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is 4.5% (at the end of December 2025). The table below includes the regional breakdown for CPS vacancy rates applicable to these legal roles.

For context, the vacancy rates are shown alongside the number of vacancies within each geographic area, against the current area Full Time Equivalent (FTE).

*These figures include all legal staff designated as ‘Crown Prosecutors’ only.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the mean average in calendar days from referral for a charging decision or early advice to the decision to authorise a charge against suspects.

This was 46 days in 2024-25, 44 days in 2023-24, 45 days in 2022-23 and 42 days in 2021-22.

The timeliness data includes cases where the police have submitted a file for early advice as well as those for charging decision. The data includes cases where the police were required to submit further evidence prior to a decision to charge. This generally includes more than one submission and more investigation.

The timeliness of a charging decision is determined by three key factors: whether the case has been sent to the CPS for early advice during the investigative process, how quickly the police can complete the necessary enquiries; and how quickly the CPS can then review the evidence provided by the police and finalise the charging decision.

The SFO’s operational guidance and processes are kept under constant review to ensure they continue to meet operational needs. The SFO’s case selection criteria are established in the Director’s Statement of Principle and ensure that the SFO meets its statutory obligations to investigate and prosecute serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption.

The Law Officers have supervisory oversight of the SFO’s work and regularly assess their operational performance. The SFO’s work is also independently reviewed by the HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate to ensure that they are following good practice.

I regularly report on the work of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) publicly and in Parliament. This includes highlighting new guidance and casework updates published by the SFO and encouraging reporting of crime, including bribery.

The SFO promotes cooperation from business, including the benefits of self-reporting, and the Director and his senior team speak directly to businesses. The SFO routinely engages with the media to promote the SFO’s work and raise awareness of new publications, including the International Foreign Bribery Taskforce’s indicators of foreign bribery.

The Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by the Law Officers, or requested of the Law Officers, and the Convention applies to your question.

The Law Officers’ Convention can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:

“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.”

The CPS does not hold the data requested. To establish whether suspects on cases where immigration offences were considered by reviewing lawyers at pre-charge stage, where then a subsequent no prosecution decision on evidential grounds was made in the last three years, would require a manual review of case files and this would be at disproportionate cost.