Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions there have been of (a) British nationals and (b) individuals resident in the UK with respect to the general bribery offences under the Bribery Act 2010 broken down by (i) type or sub-type of offence and (ii) prosecuting organisation or agency.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.
General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)
The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.
British national | UK resident | |
Individuals charged | 13 | 0 |
Individuals successfully prosecuted | 6 | 0 |
Bribery Act 2010 counts | Section 1 | Section 2 |
Counts charged | 31 | 5 |
Counts successfully prosecuted | 17 | 4 |
The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 7 Bribery Act 2010
The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.
The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017
The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, broken down by (i) type or sub-type of offence and (ii) prosecuting organisation or agency.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.
General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)
The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.
British national | UK resident | |
Individuals charged | 13 | 0 |
Individuals successfully prosecuted | 6 | 0 |
Bribery Act 2010 counts | Section 1 | Section 2 |
Counts charged | 31 | 5 |
Counts successfully prosecuted | 17 | 4 |
The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 7 Bribery Act 2010
The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.
The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017
The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) attempted and (b) successful public prosecutions under Section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017, broken down by (a) type or sub-type of offence and (b) prosecuting organisation or agency.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As Solicitor General I superintend the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting serious international fraud, bribery, and corruption cases. The CPS also prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police, committed either overseas or in England and Wales.
General bribery offences (sections 1 and 2 Bribery Act 2010)
The tables below show the number of individuals – British national or UK resident – charged and successful prosecuted (by way of guilty plea or conviction by jury) by the SFO under sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act 2010.
British national | UK resident | |
Individuals charged | 13 | 0 |
Individuals successfully prosecuted | 6 | 0 |
Bribery Act 2010 counts | Section 1 | Section 2 |
Counts charged | 31 | 5 |
Counts successfully prosecuted | 17 | 4 |
The CPS does not record or hold the requested data centrally and is not able to disaggregate its data based on nationality of offenders. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 7 Bribery Act 2010
The SFO has charged and successfully prosecuted (by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, guilty plea, or conviction by jury) 12 organisations under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.
The CPS has charged organisations under section 7 five times. However, this is not an indication of final outcome or if the charged offences were the substantive charges at finalisation. The CPS does not record or hold the requested data on prosecution outcomes at the offence-level centrally. The information can only be obtained by completing manual case file reviews, which would be at a disproportionate cost.
Section 45 Criminal Finances Act 2017
The SFO and CPS have not brought any charges under section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, if she will make an estimate of the number of unexplained wealth orders that have been (a) requested by and (b) granted to the Serious Fraud Office for each year from 2020 to 2024.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The SFO has made one application for an unexplained wealth order (UWO) since 2020. This UWO application was accepted by the court on 17 January 2025 and related to the recovery of property suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of a £100 million fraud.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, if she will (a) list the spending programmes her Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The Attorney General’s Office does not have individual spending programmes which are devolved to local government or other local spending bodies.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what meetings he has had with representatives of the Legatum Institute in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Neither I nor the Solicitor General have had any meetings with representatives of the Legatum Institute in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps he is taking under the (a) UK statutory and (b) international legal framework to improve rates of prosecution for British Citizens for participation in (i) acts of genocide and (b) war crimes committed abroad.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
On 21 September 2017, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to adopt UK-proposed Daesh Accountability Resolution 2379, which requests the UN Secretary General to establish an Investigative Team headed by a Special Adviser to collect, preserve and store evidence of Daesh crimes, beginning in Iraq.
The UK will work alongside the UN, Government of Iraq and other partners to implement Resolution 2379, ensuring that everything possible is done to hold Daesh to account for their crimes. This could potentially include the Team sharing evidence of crimes committed by British citizens in Iraq with UK authorities.
Within the CPS, all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are dealt with by a team of specially trained prosecutors in the Counter Terrorism Division (CTD). CTD work closely with the war crimes team of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) under well established guidelines, details of which can be found here http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/agencies/war_crimes.html#b
Each case investigated by the police which is referred to the CPS is considered on its own merits. A charging decision is then made in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what charges have been brought against British citizens for acts relating to the conflict in Syria and Daesh activities in that region; how many citizens have been charged for each such offence; and what sentences have been handed down by courts from convictions relating to such charges.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold these official figures. The Home Office Statistical Bulletin publishes data about convictions quarterly but does not distinguish those which relate to Syria and Daesh. It sets out the principal offences for which terrorists were convicted and the sentences.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2017 to Question 8633, how many British citizens have been (a) charged and (b) convicted of acts relating to the conflict in Syria and Daesh activities in that region.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold these official figures. The Home Office Statistical Bulletin publishes data about convictions quarterly but does not distinguish those which relate to Syria and Daesh.
Although official figures do not show how many were Syria or Daesh related, Of the 105 persons charged with a terrorism-related offence in the year ending June 2017, 33 had been prosecuted (as at the time of data provision to the Home Office, 14 July 2017), 32 of which were found guilty. A further 68 were awaiting prosecution.