Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, which policies under each arms length body reporting to their Department fall within the scope of the Environmental principles policy statement, published on 31 January 2023.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The duty, which came into force on 1 November 2023, does not require the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) nor its superintended bodies (the Crown Prosecution Service, the Government Legal Department, the Serious Fraud Office, and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate) to maintain a comprehensive list of policies within scope of the duty.
The AGO and the bodies it superintends do not lead on policy.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to (a) extend the 2017 gender pay reporting framework to include reporting on the (i) ethnicity, (b) disability and (c) LGBT pay gap, (b) extend pay gap reporting requirements to companies with more than 100 employees, (c) mandate horizontal pay reporting and (d) require companies with pay gaps to publish an evidence-based action plan to tackle (A) pay discrimination and (B) any failure to actively recruit under-represented groups to high value roles.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Pay gaps are caused by a range of factors. The Government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on Ethnicity Pay Reporting, which received over 300 responses. The Government has met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers towards reporting and what information could be published to allow for meaningful action to be taken. We have also run voluntary methodology testing with a broad range of businesses to better understand the complexities outlined in the consultation using real payroll data and will share next steps in due course.
Calculation and monitoring of disability and LGBT pay gaps raises significant issues of self-reporting and data accuracy and this data is not widely collected by employers. On disability, the Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap and seeing a million more disabled people in work between 2017 and 2027. We support disabled people to enter employment and stay in work through a range of programmes such as the Work and Health Programme, Access to Work and the Intensive Personalised Employment Support Programme. In November 2018 we also published a voluntary reporting framework on public reporting of pay and progression of disabled people. This is aimed at employers (with over 250 employees) but can also be used to support smaller employers who are keen to drive greater transparency.
On LGBT, we are clear that LGBT people should be able to be themselves in the workplace. We are committed to taking action on LGBT sexual harassment in the workplace and are currently in conversation with ACAS about their harassment guidance. We are also taking steps to improve our monitoring data, including introducing questions to the 2021 Census in this area.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Equality Act 2010, what records the Government holds on the potential effect on equalities of (a) the UK leaving the EU without a deal (b) the right hon. Member for Maidenhead's proposed deal and (c) the Prime Minister’s proposed deal.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
When we leave the EU, all EU equality law which has already been transposed into the domestic statute book and consolidated into the Equality Act 2010 will be preserved as EU-derived domestic legislation under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The Government is committed to retain all the protections in the Equality Act 2010 and equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland. This applies irrespective of whether the UK leaves with either of the deals mentioned in the Question, or without a deal.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether the Sub-Group to the Criminal Justice Board and Review of the Criminal Justice Response to Rape and Serious Sexual Offences plans to make an assessment of the (a) effectiveness and (b) effect on survivors of rape of the legal guidance issued by the CPS on rape and sexual offence in relation to disclosure of medical records and counselling notes.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Crown Prosecution Service is working with the police, government departments and third sector stakeholders on the Government’s review into how the criminal justice system responds to rape and serious sexual offences. The Crown Prosecution Service is committed to working with all involved in the Review, including stakeholders, to identify and address any issues that are identified.
Complainants are entitled to protection from unnecessary and unjustified invasion of their private lives. CPS guidance is clear that where it is a reasonable line of enquiry in the investigation, the police should obtain complainants’ informed consent to gain access to medical records and counselling notes. Prosecutors will robustly apply the relevant statutory provisions when deciding whether such material should be disclosed to the defence.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the costs were of all external counsel in the case of R v Brewer and others.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) can only provide costs in respect of prosecution counsel.
The Case of R v Brewer and others concerns 15 defendants who were convicted after trial of an offence contrary to section 1(2)(b) Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 at Chelmsford Crown Court on 10 December 2018.
The case is ongoing and fees are only paid to counsel at the conclusion of the case. However, it is anticipated that the cost of counsel fees in this case, before the sentencing hearing, to be around £134,000. The case is a graduated fees case and therefore paid in accordance with that scheme. The figure is an estimate only and final fees will be subject to scrutiny in accordance with standard practices of the CPS.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to his power to grant his consent to a prosecution, whether he is required to make that decision in accordance with the 1972 Franks Committee memorandum criteria of (a) whether the charge is being brought in appropriate circumstances, (b) the five reasons for the requirement of consent, as set out in that memorandum and (c) the mischief at which the criminal law in question was addressed.
Answered by Robert Buckland
For certain offences, Parliament has decided that the Attorney General’s consent is needed to bring a prosecution.
The Home Office memorandum to the Franks Committee in 1972 gave guidance on the reasons for including a consent requirement when creating a criminal offence. It provided that the basic reason for including a consent requirement is that otherwise there would be a risk of prosecutions being brought in inappropriate circumstances and identified five broader overlapping reasons for including a consent requirement.
It is a constitutional principle that, when deciding whether to consent to a prosecution, the Law Officers will consider all relevant facts including why it is proposed to bring the prosecution and the mischief which the proposed offence was intended to prevent and apply the well-established prosecution principles of evidential sufficiency and the public interest test.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, on how many occasions he has agreed to (a) review and (b) reconsider his consent to prosecution; and on how many of those occasions he withdrew his consent in each of the last five years.
Answered by Geoffrey Cox
The Attorney General will consider requests to review decisions where new evidence becomes available.
However, the requested information would require the examining of AGO case files and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times he has been asked to consent to a prosecution; and in how many of those cases he (a) granted and (b) refused consent in each of the last five years.
Answered by Geoffrey Cox
The Law Officers have received 705 applications for consent since 1 January 2013. Consent has been declined in 33 applications. Consent was declined on 14 occasions as there was insufficient evidence and on 19 occasions because a prosecution was not in the public interest.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether he has made an assessment of the written legal opinion by Sir David Edward, Sir Francis Jacobs and Sir Jeremy Lever on the constitutional role of Parliament in future decision making on withdrawal from the European Union and whether an Article 50 notification may be unilaterally withdrawn.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
By longstanding convention, the fact that the Law Officers have or have not advised, and the content of their advice, is not disclosed outside Government.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Prime Minister's Oral Statement of 7 September 2015, Official Report, column 30, whether the legal advice provided on the targeted killing of British citizens by remote control drone in Syria covers future targeted killings of UK citizens or if new and separate advice will have to be sought for any future such killings.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Prime Minister gave a detailed statement on 7 September 2015 in which he informed the House that I was consulted on the action and was clear that there would be a legal basis for action in international law. By long-standing convention, reflected in the Cabinet Manual, the content of the Law Officers’ advice is not disclosed outside government without the consent of the Law Officers. As I explained in my oral evidence to the Justice Select Committee on the 15th September (HC 409), the convention should be adhered to in this case.