Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what plans she has to increase prosecution rates for cases involving violence against women and girls.
Answered by Andy Slaughter - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The CPS’s focus on tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is driving an increase in charges across a range of offences, including rape and domestic abuse-flagged offences.
The CPS's Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy for 2025-2030 aims to ensure that prosecutors have the right skills and tools to prosecute VAWG offences effectively. It sets out the approach the CPS is taking to improve casework quality, increase public confidence, and support the Government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls.
To improve the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences, the CPS has delivered significant reforms, including the introduction of a National Operating Model for adult rape prosecution, strengthened joint working and governance with policing, updated prosecution guidance, and a Rape Action Plan focused on improving case quality and prosecutor capability.
The CPS has also introduced enhanced assurance activity through the Rape Case Strategy Improvement Programme to support high-quality and consistent legal decision-making. These measures are contributing to improved outcomes, with 3,754 suspects charged in adult rape-flagged cases in 2025 (the highest number since records began), alongside the highest ever volume of completed adult rape prosecutions.
Tackling VAWG demands coordinated action across government. The CPS works closely with policing and other criminal justice partners to strengthen the collective response to these offences and ensure that victims are protected. In collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and third sector partners, the CPS developed a national Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP) to strengthen the collective response to domestic abuse. Since the DA JJP launch in Q3 2024-25, referral volumes of DA flagged offences have seen quarter-on-quarter increases and the charge rate has remained above 80%.
Together with the Home Office and the NPCC, the CPS has hosted two national multi-agency ‘honour’-based abuse conferences and will host a further multi-agency conference on stalking on 10 September. These events bring together colleagues from across government, statutory partners, specialist organisations and those with lived experience to develop our understanding of and response to VAWG offending.
Joint protocols between the police and CPS help to establish a clear, shared understanding for police and prosecutors of how to recognise and respond to VAWG offending. The joint protocols on stalking, ‘honour’-based abuse and female genital mutilation (FGM) are being updated, to ensure they support the collective response to the evolving nature of these offences.
Effective training helps to ensure prosecutors are fully equipped to identify, charge and progress cases effectively, and refreshed training on strangulation or suffocation and ‘honour’-based abuse is currently in development. The CPS also recognises the growing role that technology plays in facilitating and amplifying VAWG offending, and a dedicated Technology-Facilitated VAWG Action Plan is being developed to strengthen the CPS response to this evolving form of offending (with publication expected by the end of the year).
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what plans she has to ensure the effective prosecution of people smugglers.
Answered by Andy Slaughter - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Securing our borders and tackling the exploitative criminal gangs that are illegally smuggling migrants to our shores is a core priority for this Government.
The government is taking bold action to tackle the unscrupulous criminal gangs who put vulnerable lives at risk for profit, with a number of new offences introduced under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act (2025). This includes the offence to criminalise the creation of material advertising unlawful immigration services online, as well as the endangerment offence and seizure of electronic devices
With offences having commenced in January, the CPS now has further tools with which to prosecute organised immigration crime and people smugglers. Since the law change the CPS has charged more than 30 migrants with endangerment
In June we saw the first sentences for endangering lives during a channel crossing. The two defendants were jailed for two years and two years and three months respectively.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of knife crime.
Answered by Andy Slaughter - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This Government is committed to halving knife crime in the next decade through the Halving Knife Crime Plan.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has introduced measures to tackle knife crime including a new possession an offence, an increase in the maximum penalty from six months to two years imprisonment for some offences and new powers which enable the police to seize, retain and destroy dangerous knives.
Following a significant rise in knife-enabled robbery in the year to June 2024 across seven police forces, the Home Secretary established a dedicated police taskforce in October 2024. Taskforce data for the year ending March 2026 shows a 21% drop in KER offences.
The CPS is supporting the work of the taskforce and continues to improve joint working with the police. This includes ensuring the police are aware of the correct protocol for seeking Early Advice in complex knife crime cases and seeking earlier engagement with prosecutors to improve both timeliness and file quality.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what plans she has to ensure the effective prosecution of offenders charged with hostile state activity.
Answered by Andy Slaughter - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The CPS Counter Terrorism Division (CTD) is a specialist unit responsible for advising upon, and prosecuting some of the most sensitive, serious and high-profile casework in the CPS, including cases involving state threat activity.
The Counter Terrorism Division prosecuted six cases involving state threat activity under Official Secrets Act legislation between 2019 – 2025 and has separately concluded four prosecutions relating to state threat activity under the National Security Act since it came into force in 2023.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps her Department is taking to support the Serious Fraud Office in tackling waste crime.
Answered by Andy Slaughter - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The SFO investigates a small number of the most serious and complex cases of suspected fraud, bribery and corruption, often involving thousands of victims, multiple jurisdictions and international corporates.
Waste crime does not fall within this remit and therefore is not considered by the Attorney General’s Office in the course of superintending and sponsoring the work of the SFO.
These cases are typically investigated and prosecuted by the Environment Agency, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to support the Crown Prosecution Service in tackling serious financial crime in the waste sector.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS considers every case referred to it by investigators and will prosecute where the evidential and public interest tests set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors are met.
The Solicitor General supports the CPS in tackling serious financial crime across all sectors, including where offending occurs in the waste sector. This includes supporting cross-government economic crime reforms and investment in economic crime and asset recovery capability, helping the CPS and its law enforcement partners to prosecute offenders and recover criminal assets.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what recent steps she has taken to help increase prosecution rates for offences relating to female genital mutilation.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is dedicated to addressing female genital mutilation (FGM) and all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), aiming to halve VAWG in the next decade. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is actively working to increase FGM prosecutions.
The first conviction in England and Wales for conspiring to commit FGM was obtained in September 2024. In February 2025, I welcomed the Court of Appeal’s decision to increase the sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme from four and a half years’ imprisonment to seven years’ imprisonment, reflecting the seriousness of the offender’s crimes.
Each CPS Area has a dedicated FGM lead with expertise in the prosecution of FGM cases to improve the CPS’ response to these cases.
The CPS provides early investigative advice to police in all FGM cases. Under the CPS and National Police Chiefs’ Council joint protocol on FGM, investigators are directed to consult with the CPS at the earliest possible stage. The protocol ensures a robust and consistent criminal justice response, and aims to improve the identification, investigation and prosecution of FGM cases.
The CPS’ prosecution guidance and specialist training on FGM support prosecutors to navigate the complexities and sensitivities of these cases.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what recent steps she has taken to help ensure the effective prosecution of (a) wildlife, (b) heritage, (c) rural and (d) waste crime in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of rural crime – broadly classified as any crime and anti-social behaviour occurring in rural areas. We are introducing tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, stronger neighbourhood policing, and robust laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
We are recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers across England and Wales.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and partner bodies, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors work closely with local police officers to tackle farm equipment theft and other rural crime, alongside officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle wildlife offences. Fly-tipping can be investigated by police but is usually prosecuted by the local authority rather than the CPS.
The CPS provides legal guidance on Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime which is available to all its prosecutors, to assist them in dealing with these cases. That guidance is available here: Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime | The Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS also provides specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute these crimes.
West Midlands CPS, within which Newcastle-under-Lyme falls, has a dedicated prosecutor to lead on wildlife, heritage, and rural crime.