Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is a small ministerial department, staff are generally employed on loan from other Government Offices, therefore a high turnover is expected.
The AGO provides opportunities to work in a fast paced, high profile, environment and appointments are considered developmental.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Attorney General and I inform Members of Parliament ahead of time when we are visiting their constituencies.
We are unable to confirm or disclose details of planned Ministerial visits too far in advance for security reasons.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Departmental performance on written parliamentary questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available. You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year’s data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
Every effort must be made to reply to written parliamentary questions within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the question require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps his Department is taking to (a) enhance cybersecurity and (b) protect personal data.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Being cyber secure and protecting personal data underpins everything we do in the Attorney General’s Office (AGO). In accordance with the Government Cyber Security Strategy, we are working to ensure that our critical functions will be significantly hardened to cyber-attack by
2025, with all government organisations across the whole public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods no later than 2030.
The Crown Prosecution Service provide digital services to the Attorney General’s Office which includes responsibility for AGO cybersecurity and protecting personal data.
The AGO does not have an external public facing internet site other than gov.uk and Cabinet Office manage digital development.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Every effort must be made to reply to written parliamentary questions within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the question require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
The Attorney General’s Office ensures that strict internal deadlines are in place and training sessions on written parliamentary questions are carried out.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether she is taking steps to ensure that staff in her Department who are under investigation for alleged misconduct are not named before those allegations are proven.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
HR services for the Attorney General's Office are provided by the Government Legal Department (GLD). All relevant GLD policies align with the Civil Service's model discipline policy. That makes clear that disciplinary matters are strictly confidential.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the civil service headquarters occupancy data, updated on 6 July 2023, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of occupancy rates on her Department's performance during June 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) regularly reviews its ways of working, considering a variety of factors including current performance. Hybrid working arrangements are nothing new. For some time, the AGO have worked on a basis of a ratio of desks to staff. |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that her Office’s Guidelines on Disclosure enable the effective prosecution of fraud and economic crime.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The volume of digital material generated in complex case work continues to grow and is particularly noticeable in fraud and economic crime cases. The Attorney General’s Guidelines, updated last year, include some measures to help agencies effectively deliver their disclosure obligations in the digital age. This is an ongoing challenge, and my department is working closely with the SFO and the CPS to explore the particular difficulties inherent in fraud and economic crime and further changes that may be needed. |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme in the context of the offence of causing death by dangerous driving.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Following last year’s increase in the maximum sentence, I recently appeared in person to argue the case of Luis Balcazar-Soto before the Court of Appeal. The Court agreed with my submissions that, pending new sentencing guidelines, judges should increase sentences imposed for the most serious such offences to reflect the increase in the maximum sentence. I welcome the Court’s guidance and its decision to increase this offender’s sentence from 9 years to 12 years’ imprisonment. |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to increase its number of legal trainees.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) runs an award-winning and highly competitive legal trainee scheme that has seen hundres of trainees undertake a training contract and/or pupillage across England and Wales with the CPS since 2012.
The CPS has extended its post graduate qualification requirements, to include not only the LPC and Bar Qualification, but the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination, which opens a career in law to a broader and more diverse audience.