Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, on what dates each new investigation was opened by the Serious Fraud Office from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2021; and whether each of those investigations (a) was into a corporate or an individual and (b) is ongoing or complete.

Over the five-year period of 2016 to 2021, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened almost 50 cases. The SFO proactively publishes information about its criminal investigations on its website: https://www.sfo.gov.uk/our-cases/ whenever it is appropriate to do. This includes details on when the investigation was opened and whether it relates to individuals or a corporate body.

In order to protect the investigative process, it is not always possible - or even desirable - for the SFO to announce investigations prematurely. Because of the small number of live investigations that the SFO has open at any one time and the covert nature of many of them, disclosing a breakdown of numbers and the focus of each, could potentially compromise ongoing efforts.

The SFO investigates and prosecutes the most serious and complex cases of fraud, bribery, and corruption. The size and complexity of those cases, including the volume of victims and witnesses, means that it can take a number of years for a full investigation to be carried out.