Attorney General’s Office: Conflicts of Interest

Lord Butler of Brockwell Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hermer (Lab)]

My Lords, I do. We have set out, and the Solicitor-General set out in the other place, details of that rigorous process. We have explained it and I consider that, without offending the law officers’ convention, that is as far as we can properly go.

[Lord Butler of Brockwell (CB)]

My Lords, so that the noble Lord does not have to comment on particular cases, could he just say, as a general principle, whether there is a conflict of interest when a law officer is asked to advise on a matter in which he has been retained in a private professional capacity?

[Lord Hermer (Lab)]

I hope I manage to capture the noble Lord’s question. I do not think it possible, without offending the law officers’ convention, to identify circumstances and instances in which I have recused myself because in so doing, it would identify matters upon which my advice was sought. However, I have made it plain to the House that, as a result of the application of the rigorous system we have in place for the identification and management of conflicts—and what I have described as the conservative approach we apply to managing those conflicts, erring on the side of caution—there have been matters, since coming into this office, on which I have recused myself.