Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what discussions her Department has had with other Government departments on proposals to make first cousin marriage unlawful.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
By long-standing convention, the fact that I, or a fellow Law Officer, may have advised or not advised, as well as the content of our advice, is not disclosed outside government.
As explained in Erskine May: “By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence."
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much (a) their Department and (b) its arm’s length bodies have spent on (i) installing electric vehicle charging facilities and (ii) purchasing electric vehicles since 4 July 2024; and what estimate their Department has made of the difference in capital cost between (A) the electric vehicles purchased by their Department and (B) comparable (1) petrol and (2) diesel models.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not incurred any expenditure on the installation of electric vehicle charging facilities since 4 July 2024.
The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not purchased any electric vehicles since 4 July 2024.
The Department has not made an estimate of the difference in capital cost between the electric vehicles purchased and comparable petrol or diesel models.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what guidance has been posted on the Government Legal Service intranet since July 2024.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government Legal Service no longer exists and has been replaced by the Government Legal Profession (GLP).
The GLP produces guidance to assist government lawyers as they work closely with ministers, policy makers and other professionals.
Lawyers across government have an important role in helping the Government deliver its manifesto and run effective public services.
Since July 2024, the following guidance has been published on the GLP intranet:
17/10/2024
Working with Legislation - Westlaw Edge UK
11/2024
Attorney General’s Guidance on Legal Risk
02/2025
Knowledge Sharing Across the GLP
Legal Professional Privilege
Being an Effective Government lawyer
12/02/2025
Legal Professional Privilege Guidance - Sharing Advice Across the GLP
20/05/2025
New legal awareness slides on producing Statutory Instruments
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many (a) appeals and (b) successful appeals the Government has made against sentences on the basis of undue leniency, in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The statistics from 2000 are provided below. It should be noted that Attorney General’s Office does not hold accurate data prior to 2001 and we are not in possession of the data indicating the number of successful appeals for the year 2000.
Year | Appeals the Government has made against sentences on the basis of undue leniency | Successful appeals the Government has made against sentences on the basis of undue leniency |
2000 | 31 | Data unavailable |
2001 | 147 | 90 |
2002 | 148 | 94 |
2003 | 96 | 78 |
2004 | 105 | 66 |
2005 | 108 | 67 |
2006 | 144 | 104 |
2007 | 76 | 53 |
2008 | 59 | 46 |
2009 | 84 | 58 |
2010 | 77 | 60 |
2011 | 117 | 94 |
2012 | 82 | 62 |
2013 | 70 | 61 |
2014 | 122 | 106 |
2015 | 136 | 102 |
2016 | 180 | 130 |
2017 | 173 | 137 |
2018 | 140 | 99 |
2019 | 97 | 63 |
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of people that were due to be prosecuted for benefit fraud have had their prosecution proceedings terminated in the latest period for which figures are available; and for what reasons were those proceedings terminated.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Allegations of benefit fraud are investigated by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Local Authority investigators. DWP and Local Authority investigators have discretion to apply an administrative penalty or refer to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or Local Authority prosecutors for a decision on whether to prosecute.
The records held by the CPS identify the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in magistrates’ courts, rather than the number of people prosecuted. A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.
No central records of the prosecution outcomes of offences are held by the CPS. To obtain details of the number of people prosecuted and whose proceedings were stopped by the CPS, for offences of benefit fraud would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.
Furthermore, cases of benefit fraud are also prosecuted by Local Authorities so any data the CPS can glean from a manual exercise would not provide a complete record.