Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Attorney General:
What steps she is taking to ensure that the revised Guidelines on Disclosure will result in improved performance across the criminal justice system.
Answered by Suella Braverman
I am delighted that my revised Disclosure Guidelines have now been published. These Guidelines will come into force on 31 December and will be key to the requisite culture change and thinking approach needed when investigators and prosecutors carry out their disclosure obligations.
This will ensure that better, fairer decisions are made in criminal cases, which will help to ensure that fewer cases are dropped post-charge due to issues arising due to late disclosure.
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the Government's policy is on which factors to take into account when deciding whether responding to an imminent threat is permitted under international law.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
It is the long-standing position of successive UK Governments that a state may use force in self-defence not only in response to armed attacks but to prevent an armed attack that is imminent. In each exercise of the use of force in self-defence, the UK asks itself questions such as: how certain is it that an attack will come; how soon do we believe an attack could be; what could be the scale of the attack; could this be our last opportunity to take action; and is there anything else we could credibly do to prevent that attack?
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of prosecutions for modern slavery.
Answered by Robert Buckland
We have the strongest legal framework in place including the Modern Slavery Act, which came into force in July 2015. The Law Officers are supporting the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Modern Slavery, and the CPS continues to see a year on year increase in the numbers of prosecutions.
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The number of sentences considered by my office has increased by over 108% since 2010 from 342 to 713 requests in 2015.
Of those, 136 were referred by my office to the Court of Appeal as potentially unduly lenient, with the Court agreeing to increase the original sentence for 102 offenders.
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Law Officers' Departments have taken to prepare for the UK to leave the EU since 23 June 2016; and what further such steps the Law Officers' Departments plan to take in the remainder of 2016.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Department for Exiting the European Union has responsibility for overseeing preparations for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and conducting these withdrawal negotiations in support of the Prime Minister. In doing this it is working very closely with other government departments, including the Attorney General’s Office, and a wide range of other interested parties.