Asked by: Lord James of Blackheath (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to direct the Serious Fraud Office to review its handling of the case of Tom Hayes; and, further to the judgment of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States V. DB Group Services (UK) Limited (and Deutsche Bank AG) which found that the rigging of Libor interest rates was not against the rules, whether they will ask the Criminal Cases Review Commission to reconsider its decision not to refer Tom Hayes’s case back to the Court of Appeal.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is an operationally independent body. The Attorney General is responsible for safeguarding the independent decision making of the SFO, to maintain this independence the Attorney General cannot overturn a decision reached by the SFO in a particular case.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is an independent arm’s length body who consider cases where people believe they have been wrongly convicted or wrongly sentenced. It would be inappropriate for the Government or the SFO to ask the CCRC to reconsider any decision they have made, including in the case of Tom Hayes.