Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country
Ministers have not used AI in the Department in their roles as Law Officers.
A small number of officials within the Department have been piloting the use of a Microsoft 365 application ‘CoPilot’ which can be used to summarise content and meetings, assisting with drafting content and interrogating information. ChatGPT has also previously been used in this manner.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many full-time equivalent diversity, equality and inclusion staff are employed by the Serious Fraud Office.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Serious Fraud Office has one full-time equivalent staff member employed on this basis.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, if she will make a comparative assessment of the testimony given to the High Court during AB and others v. Ministry of Defence (2009) and records released by the Atomic Weapons Establishment relating to nuclear test veterans in May 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May states:
“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.”
This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention and it applies to your question.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much the Crown Prosecution Service has spent on external consultants in the last five years.
Answered by Robert Courts
Expenditure on consultancy by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is routinely published in their annual accounts, which are also laid before the House of Commons annually. These can be accessed on the SFO’s website at Annual reports and accounts - Serious Fraud Office (sfo.gov.uk) and the CPS’ website at Annual reports, business plans and strategies | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk).
The accounts of the SFO and CPS for 2023/24 are expected to be published in July 2024.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much the Serious Fraud Office has spent on external consultancies in the last five years.
Answered by Robert Courts
Expenditure on consultancy by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is routinely published in their annual accounts, which are also laid before the House of Commons annually. These can be accessed on the SFO’s website at Annual reports and accounts - Serious Fraud Office (sfo.gov.uk) and the CPS’ website at Annual reports, business plans and strategies | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk).
The accounts of the SFO and CPS for 2023/24 are expected to be published in July 2024.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what was the total sum (a) paid to and (b) received from the Good Law Project by HM Government in respect of legal costs in each financial year since 2017-18.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
There were 42 case files opened in respect of actual court proceedings between His Majesty’s Government and the Good Law Project during the period since the start of the 2017-18 financial year. HM Government won 19 and lost 6, 7 cases were settled, and 9 cases were withdrawn by the Good Law Project. One has yet to deliver an outcome.
In total, in regard to these 42 cases:
The Good Law Project has paid £984,098.45 in legal costs to HM Government, while HM Government has paid £160,925.71 in legal costs to the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2017-2018, no payments were made or received.
In financial year 2018-2019, £40,000 was paid to, and £4,753 was received from, the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2019-2020, £0 was paid to, and £59,013.19 was received from, the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2020-2021, £85,000 was paid to, and £10,000 was received from, the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2021-2022, £0 was paid to, and £286,000 was received from, the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2022-2023, £35,925.71 was paid to, and £544,000 was received from, the Good Law Project.
In financial year 2023-2024, £0 has been paid to, and £80,332.26 has been received from, the Good Law Project.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times the Crown Prosecution Service met Stonewall in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023 to 8 November.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold a central record of local meetings with stakeholders across all 14 CPS Areas and Central Casework Divisions.
At a national headquarters level, the CPS met with Stonewall three times in 2023 in the context of national forums on hate crime, where a broad range of other external stakeholders were also in attendance. There were no meetings with Stonewall at a national level in 2022.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people were prosecuted for offences relating to posts made on Facebook in each year for which records exist.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data on the number of people prosecuted for offences relating to social media posts. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people were prosecuted for offences relating to posts made on TikTok for in each year for which records exist.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data on the number of people prosecuted for offences relating to social media posts. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people were prosecuted for offences relating to posts made on X in each year for which records exist.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data on the number of people prosecuted for offences relating to social media posts. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.