Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what the average time taken is from referral to charging decision by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) management information shows that in the most recent 12 months ending March 2025 it took a mean average of 46 calendar days from the first time the CPS received a case, either a request for early advice or a referral for a charging decision, to the decision to charge and prosecute.

For the above metric the median average is two calendar days.

The above timeliness data includes cases where the police have submitted a file for early advice as well as those for charging decision. This data includes cases where the police were required to submit further evidence prior to a decision to charge. This generally includes more than one submission and further investigation.

The timeliness of a charging decision is determined by three key factors: whether the case has been sent to the CPS for early advice during the investigative process; how quickly the police can complete the necessary enquiries; and how quickly the CPS can then review the evidence provided by the police and finalise the charging decision.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the prosecution of people who use AI to create deepfake photos of girls.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Government takes the use of artificial intelligence to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) extremely seriously. Offences involving AI-generated CSAM – including so-called ‘deepfakes’ – are an increasing concern for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) due to the realism of such images and the speed and scale at which they can be produced.

Creating, possessing, or distributing AI-generated CSAM is already a criminal offence. The Online Safety Act expands upon this by placing a duty on online platforms to proactively identify and remove this type of content. The CPS will prosecute individuals who commit these offences whenever the legal test is met.

The Attorney General’s Office and CPS are working closely with criminal justice partners to identify and address any legislative gaps. The Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a new offence to criminalise AI models that have been optimised to create CSAM. It will also expand existing legislation on ‘paedophile manuals’ to enable the prosecution of individuals who instruct others on how to use AI tools to generate CSAM.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what guidance her Department has provided to the Crown Prosecution Service on communicating with victims of sexual violence about trial (a) delays and (b) adjournments.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Attorney General’s Office does not issue operational guidance to the CPS.

The CPS has a specific programme of work dedicated to improving communication with victims of crime which includes the introduction of a new Enhanced Service offer for adult victims of rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO). This service incudes the offer of a pre-trial meeting with a member of the prosecution team which provides victims the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about the process of giving evidence.

CPS guidance recommends that those leading the meeting discuss with victims the likely timescales involved in a case and point out the potential implications of court listing practicalities.

The CPS has also recruited over 40 Victim Liaison Officers (VLOs) to work in its RASSO Units to help improve the quality of engagement with adult RASSO victims. These VLOs act as a consistent point of contact within the CPS for victims, should they have any questions about the prosecution process.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions the Crown Prosecution Service has discontinued in the last three years; and for what reasons.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Management information held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) shows the number of defendants whose prosecution was dropped by the CPS and the primary reason allocated to the outcome at finalisation.

The table below shows the number and proportion of prosecutions dropped and the reason applied for the latest available three years ending March 2025.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to the Crown Prosecution Service to meet current case volumes.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

In June, the Chancellor announced a landmark increase of £96m (RDELex) in additional funding for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the spending review period.

Through the spending review process, the AGO worked with the CPS and HM Treasury to review and agree CPS resources through assessing current and anticipated future case volumes, including consideration of the number of sitting days and the growing complexity of cases. This included a zero-based review of the CPS’ budget for this financial year, which tested the value for money of their spending and ensured that they are driving efficiencies and delivering for the public.

The additional funding over the next three years will mean the CPS can recruit more Crown Advocates and frontline staff to prosecute cases and better support victims. Investment in digital technology, new digital casework tools, and exploration of artificial intelligence tools will enable a more productive CPS to respond to the growing volume of cases.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many additional prosecutors the Crown Prosecution Service has recruited in each of the last three years.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has recruited the following additional prosecutors in each of the last three years:

The CPS forecasts significant growth in the number of additional prosecutors for the financial year 2025/26 following its positive Spending Review Phase 2 settlement – in which CPS received an uplift of £96 million.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.

The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Attorney General has discussed the UK-Mauritius Treaty over the future sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago with Philippe Sands.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Attorney General has never engaged in discussion with Philippe Sands on the UK-Mauritius Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on the potential prosecution of British citizens returning to the UK after volunteering or enlisting in the armed forces of Ukraine.

Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General

Travel advice for Ukraine, issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, makes clear that if a British national travels to Ukraine to fight, or to assist others engaged in the war, their activities may amount to offences under UK legislation.

Anyone, regardless of their citizenship, who travels from the UK to take part in conflicts overseas may be investigated by the police on return to determine if they have committed criminal offences, and to ensure that they do not pose a threat to our national security.

The Crown Prosecution Service will consider any information that is referred by the police and any decision to prosecute will be considered on a case-by case basis and in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what assessment her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of prosecutions arising from protest activity by Palestine Action.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Prosecutions relating to Palestine Action arrests are currently ongoing and at different stages of progression.

As such, no Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) costs assessments have been made at this stage, but the CPS continues to keep resourcing under review.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what assessment her Department has made of the number of (a) rape and (b) sexual violence cases that are withdrawn post-charge; and what support is available to victims to help them continue with their cases.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

Reducing victim attrition remains a serious concern for this Government. We are committed to improving the experiences of victims of rape and sexual violence and ensuring they receive the support they need to continue with their cases.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recognises that it has a key role to play in ensuring that victims receive better communication and support at both the pre- and post-charge stages, underpinned by timely and high-quality decision making.

Through its Victim Transformation Programme, the CPS is taking action to improve the service offered to all victims of crime. As part of this work, all adult victims of rape now receive an Enhanced Service – which includes access to a dedicated Victim Liaison Officer, as well as the offer of a pre-trial meeting with the prosecution team. Victims are also able to speak with Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, who can answer questions and signpost them towards relevant support services.

More broadly, in May 2025, the CPS published its Victim Service Standards, which publicly set out the expectations CPS staff should meet when writing to or speaking with victims. The Standards make clear that victims can expect consistency, empathy and clarity from the CPS.

The two tables below show the overall volumes of prosecutions conducted by the CPS since 2021 for (1) rape flagged cases, and (2) cases where the principal offence category was ‘sexual offences’ (excluding rape flagged cases to avoid double counting).

For each category, the tables also provide the volume of victim attrition (the number of prosecutions that were stopped because the victim no longer supported, or was unable to support, the prosecution) and the rate of victim attrition (the proportion of total prosecutions that were discontinued for this reason).

Further information is available in the quarterly data published on the CPS website: https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/cps-quarterly-data-summaries

Table 1: Victim attrition in rape flagged prosecutions

Table 2: Victim attrition in prosecutions for Sexual Offences (excluding rape flagged prosecutions)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what assessment the Crown Prosecution Service has made of the adequacy of National Investigation Service investigations.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Department for Business and Trade has responsibility for the National Investigation Service, given it is overseen by the Insolvency Service. As a result, the Crown Prosecution has made no assessment of the adequacy of the National Investigation Service.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, whether her Department has spent money on promotion through social media influencers since July 2024.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Attorney General’s Office has not spent money on social media influencers since July 2024.

Influencers can be effective in reaching audiences that the Government and traditional marketing channels find hard to reach.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, when the Bona Vacantia list will be made publicly available again on the Government website.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Bona Vacantia unclaimed estates list was temporarily removed from GOV.UK on 7 July 2025. At this time, the number of estates published on the list was 5,770.

The future publication of the list is currently under review.

Estates administered as bona vacantia continue to be published in The Gazette.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many estates are listed on the Bona Vacantia list.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Bona Vacantia unclaimed estates list was temporarily removed from GOV.UK on 7 July 2025. At this time, the number of estates published on the list was 5,770.

The future publication of the list is currently under review.

Estates administered as bona vacantia continue to be published in The Gazette.

Found: DSIT), Home Office, Department of Business and Trade, FCDO, MoD, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General

Found: Today, we hear from the right honourable Lord Hermer KC, Attorney-General.

Found: Office must be notified of any proposal to create an offence which requires consent from the Attorney General

Found: Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, in consultation with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what meetings he has had with the (a) Crown Prosecution Service and (b) the police in relation to the recommendations in HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate's report entitled A Thematic Rape Inspection Report: An inspection of early advice and pre-charge decision making in adult rape cases, published on 15 July 2025.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has accepted all eight recommendations set out in His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate’s (HMCPSI) report, along with the implementation timeframe proposed by the Inspectorate. The CPS full response to the report is published on its public website and includes the projected implementation date for each recommendation. The latest of these dates is July 2026: https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/crown-prosecution-service-response-hmcpsi-inspection-early-advice-and-pre-charge.

Following his recent appointment as Secretary of State for Justice, the Deputy Prime Minister looks forward to meeting with the Attorney General, the CPS and the police, to discuss their progress on implementing the recommendations made in the HMCPSI report.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 75145 on Rape: Criminal Proceedings, by what date his Department plans to implement the recommendations of the HMCPSI report.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has accepted all eight recommendations set out in His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate’s (HMCPSI) report, along with the implementation timeframe proposed by the Inspectorate. The CPS full response to the report is published on its public website and includes the projected implementation date for each recommendation. The latest of these dates is July 2026: https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/crown-prosecution-service-response-hmcpsi-inspection-early-advice-and-pre-charge.

Following his recent appointment as Secretary of State for Justice, the Deputy Prime Minister looks forward to meeting with the Attorney General, the CPS and the police, to discuss their progress on implementing the recommendations made in the HMCPSI report.

Found: advice, including in-house, and when appropriate with external counsel and ultimately with the Attorney General

Found: REFERENCE by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland – United Nations Convention on