Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Attorney General has provided the (a) Permanent Secretary and (b) Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards a list of his (a) paid and (b) unpaid fees further to his past employment at Matrix Chambers.

As I set out to the House on Thursday 23 January, and the Attorney General repeated in the House of Lords on Monday 27 January, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has an established and rigorous process for identifying and dealing with conflicts, and potential conflicts, that arise from the Law Officers’ past practice. That process predates the appointment of the Attorney General and sits against the backdrop of every lawyer’s professional obligation to be alert to, and actively manage, any situation that might give rise to a potential or actual conflict.

This rigorous process for identifying and managing conflicts sits alongside the system relating to ministerial interests, overseen by the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards. Both the Director General of the AGO and the Independent Adviser were provided with the Attorney General’s list of conflicts following his appointment.