Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to reports that a former client of the Attorney General, Mahdi Al Harati, is bringing legal proceeding against them, what steps they have taken to avoid any conflicts of interest arising in this case.

It is an important legal principle, as confirmed by the Bar Council, that “barristers do not choose their clients, nor do they associate themselves with their clients’ opinions or behaviour by virtue of representing them”.

Law Officers, by their experience and professional nature have an extensive legal background and may have previously been involved in a wide number of past cases. That is why there is a robust system for considering and managing any conflicts that may arise, in line with the professional obligations of lawyers.

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 check will necessarily include consideration of matters in which a Law Officer was instructed before taking up their current role. That process 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.