Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Crown Prosecution Service has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
There has been a significant increase in demand, as well as costs for translation services post Covid. This has led to a necessary increase in expenditure on translation and interpretation services. We continue to regularly monitor expenditure to ensure best value for money for taxpayers.
Crown Prosecution Service has spent the following on translation and interpretation services over the last five financial years:
Financial year | Spend |
2020-21 | £484,087 |
2021-22 | £811,458 |
2022-23 | £888,170 |
2023-24 | £1,012,710 |
2024-25 | £1,104,021 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Government Legal Department has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Government Legal Department has not incurred any translation and interpretation services costs in the last five years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Serious Fraud Office has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Almost all the SFO’s cases are connected to other jurisdictions and often include overseas suspects or witnesses and involve significant amounts of evidential material. This means that it needs to make use of translation services in its work. We regularly monitor expenditure to ensure best value for money for taxpayers.
Its expenditure on translation services is contained in the following table.
2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
£101,102 | £125,082 | £168,777 | £67,149 | £55,393 |
The SFO has not made use of any interpretation services in the last five financial years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether her Department has spent money on promotion through social media influencers since July 2024.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Attorney General’s Office has not spent money on social media influencers since July 2024.
Influencers can be effective in reaching audiences that the Government and traditional marketing channels find hard to reach.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been charged with human trafficking offences in relation to small boat crossings in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Human trafficking flagged prosecutions data, which includes offences committed under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and comparable offences committed prior to 2015, is published each quarter. The latest information was published on 17 July and can be found here. It is not possible to distil from this data whether any of these cases involved people who arrived in the UK on a small boat without conducting a manual review of cases which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) considers all cases referred to it by law enforcement. It has increased prosecutions for immigration related offences since the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 came into force, which introduced a new offence of illegal arrival and increased sentencing for illegal entry and related offences and facilitation offences contained in the Immigration Act 1971.
Organised crime groups are highly adaptable and are exploiting people for gain with no regard for their safety or our border controls. A multi-agency response is key to tackling this. The CPS plays an important part in the whole system response to organised immigration crime in the Border Security Command. The CPS has also increased engagement with overseas partners to maximise opportunities to collaborate on information and evidence gathering, to prosecute more swiftly.
Under the Modern Slavery Action Plan, the Home Office has commissioned research to better understand the links between organised immigration crime and modern slavery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Crown Prosecution Service has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spent the below amounts on equipment such as chairs, monitors and desks to enable to staff to work from home effectively in the last three years:
Financial year | CPS homeworker Spend |
2024-25 | £295,822 |
2023-24 | £336,206 |
2022-23 | £448,551 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Serious Fraud Office has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
All Serious Fraud Office (SFO) staff are routinely provided with laptops that enable them to work flexibly in the office, at home or other locations.
In financial year 2024-25, the SFO spent £1311.77 on equipment to enable a small number of staff needing workplace adjustments to work from home. No data is recorded specifically on workplace adjustment expenditure for home-working in the previous two years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Government Legal Department has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with the Government Legal Department’s (GLD) hybrid working policy, the Department has spent the following amounts for each financial year on providing staff with the relevant equipment and furniture to enable them to work effectively at home:
Financial Year | Total Amount Spent |
2022-23 | £33,537.96 |
2023-24 | £63,729.61 |
2024-25 | £62,864.02 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much her Department has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Attorney General’s Office operates 60% minimum office attendance for most staff and hybrid working. To support staff working at home the department offers a contribution to equipment. The cost to the department in each of the last three years is £284.00 in 2023, £578.32 in 2024, and £214.94 in 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to increase the number of apprenticeship starts in her Department.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, the ‘Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship’ (CLA), will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
In addition, my department continues to offer apprenticeship opportunities each year. Given the size of the Attorney General’s Office (approximately 60 staff) this number can vary. We currently have one apprentice.