Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, in how many cases the Crown Prosecution Service instructed QCs when the defence case was not presented by a QC in each year since 2010; and what proportion of the total number of cases brought to court that figure represented.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of whether the defendant was represented by junior or senior counsel. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.