Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the recent alleged disclosure of information from the National Security Council, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Official Secrets Act.
Answered by Geoffrey Cox
The policy responsibility for the operation of the Official Secrets Acts is a matter for the Cabinet Office.
The Attorney General’s role in respect of the Official Secrets Act is confined to granting consent to prosecute as defined in that Act.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether he has been asked by the Cabinet Office to assess whether there was any illegality involved in the Huawei leak from the National Security Council.
Answered by Geoffrey Cox
The Attorney General’s role in respect of the Official Secrets Act is confined to granting consent to prosecute as defined in that Act.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by the Law Officers' Departments since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol) does not hold a register of duplicate payments. Appropriate controls are in place to prevent duplicate payments and if any are identified, action is taken to recover overpaid monies. As at 18 July 2014, there are no known unrecovered duplicate payments.
Identification of the value of duplicate payments made by TSol, the Attorney General’s Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate since 2010 would require detailed analysis of accounting and other records which would incur disproportionate cost. However, in the 3 months since April 2014, TSol have identified and recovered duplicate payments with a total value of £13,068 representing 0.05% of the value of payments made during this period.
Available records show that, since April 2010, the Serious Fraud Office has identified and recovered £46,000 in duplicate supplier payments. No other duplicate payments have been identified.
The following table shows the value of duplicate payments identified by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) since 2009/10 and the proportion of such payments recovered in each of the last two financial years is presented below.
Duplicate Payments and Recoveries 2009-2014 | |||||
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | |
Duplicate payments | £135,958 | £256,803 | £72,729 | £91,578 | £149,124 |
Recovered proportion |
|
|
| 96.2% | 98.8% |
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, if he will place in the Library a copy of each item of correspondence between his Department and (a) the Home Office and (b) Lord Brittan of Spennithorne in relation to child abuse in (a) 1984 and (b) 1985; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dominic Grieve
Searches of records at the Attorney General's Office have been conducted to try and determine what, if any, correspondence or files were passed to this Office in relation to these issues. We have so far found no trace of any material.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, if he will place in the Library copies of papers from Lord Brittan of Spennithorne in relation to child abuse in 1983 and 1984 and which were referred to his Department by the Home Office; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dominic Grieve
Searches of records at the Attorney General's Office have been conducted to try and determine what, if any, correspondence or files were passed to this Office in relation to these issues. We have so far found no trace of any material.