Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times and for what reasons blockbuster funding requests from the Serious Fraud Office have been denied since 2012.
Answered by Robert Buckland
There have been eight blockbuster funding applications since 2010, all of which have been approved by the Treasury. Funding for these cases is provided from the reserve. Total reserve funding by year from 2012-13 is:
2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
£000s | £000s | £000s | £000s | £000s |
- | 5,000 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
6,735 | 19,000 | 23,237 | 18,000 | 7,500 |
6,735 | 24,000 | 25,237 | 28,000 | 17,500 |
All of these blockbuster funded cases are still under active investigation and it is not possible for operational reasons to provide a breakdown of how the funding is allocated in each case.
Reserve funding for years prior to 2016-17 also covers the costs of the SFO’s civil litigation cases.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what plans he has to update guidance issued to prosecutors on charging emergency service drivers with careless or dangerous driving.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) issues legal guidance to prosecutors on road traffic offences. The CPS Road Traffic legal guidance as a whole is in the process of being updated. However the specific guidance in relation to the charging of drivers of emergency service vehicles and drivers in emergencies is felt to be current and comprehensive. As such there are no plans at present to update this section of the guidance.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many unpaid internships there are in the Law Officers' Departments.
Answered by Robert Buckland
There are no unpaid internships in the Law Officers Departments.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what plans he has to add additional capacity to the Government Legal Service for transposing legislation derived from the EU into UK law after the conclusion of negotiations for the UK to leave the EU.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Treasury Solicitor as head of the Government Legal Service is monitoring demand for legal work across government in light of the referendum and business needs will be reflected in recruitment.
Where additional capacity is required we are addressing this by lateral moves between teams supplemented by our normal recruitment processes. We will continue carefully to monitor the demand for legal services across government.