Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, other than special advisers if her Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
Yes, The Attorney General’s Office has appointed a number of candidates who were external to the Civil Service into roles. This includes candidates who applied through standard recruitment campaigns on Civil Service Jobs and were successful after open and fair competition, as well as those who have joined on secondment and fixed term appointment.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many agency staff were employed by her Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The number of agency staff employed by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in each of the last five years is shown in the table below.
Financial Year | Total Agency Staff |
2021–2022 | 4 |
2022–2023 | 2 |
2023–2024 | 0 |
2024–2025 | 0 |
2025–2026 | 0 |
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many MP surgeries have Ministers in his Department had with MPs (a) in the period July 2024 to January 2025 and (b) since January 2025.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
Ministers in AGO have had 60 MP surgeries from July 2024 – July 2026 inclusive.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Crown Prosecution Service will publish the sentencing outcomes of defendants convicted in cases flagged under the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) sex and (c) age at sentencing.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. As the CPS is not the official record of sentencing the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for each Arm's Length Body (ALB) their Department sponsors, (a) how many people are employed in the following bands of total earnings, or nearest equivalent, (i) under £25,000, (ii) £ 25,001 to £ 35,000, (iii) £35,001 to £50,270, (iv) £50,271 to £100,00, (v) £100,001 to £ 125,140 and (vi) over £125,140, and (b) what estimate they have made of the total unfunded public sector pension liability.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
Answer In relation to part (a) of the question, the number of staff employed in each earnings band is set out below.
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Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2026 to Question 16091, Sentencing: Young Offenders, whether the Crown Prosecution Service holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions for defendants in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. However, the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, Pursuant to the answer of 8 June 2026, to Question 4139, on Government Departments: Cost Effectiveness, if she will publish the most recent quarterly efficiency report submitted to HM Treasury by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate as a non-ministerial department.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
HMT’s publication of the 2026-27 financial reporting manual makes clear that a select group of smaller departments and independent bodies – which includes the Law Officers Departments - are exempt from the requirement to report efficiencies to HM Treasury in line with the Government Efficiency Framework. There are therefore no efficiency reports from the HMCPSI to HM Treasury, but the Law Officer Departments are all working towards their commitment at Spending Review 2025 to deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies over Phase 2 of the SR period.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, on how many occasions the Law Officers have been consulted by government departments on the lawful use of emergency powers in the context of civil emergency planning in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by the Law Officers, or requested of the Law Officers, and the Convention applies to your question.
The Law Officers’ Convention can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:
“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many A.) prosecutions B.) convictions have been made since 2006 under Section 26(2) of the Firearms Act 1968 in relation to individuals purchasing firearms or ammunition with a false certificate.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
Section 26(2) does not create an offence relating to the purchase or acquisition of firearms using a false certificate. The offence most closely associated with such conduct is section 3(5) of the Firearms Act (FA) 1968, where it is an offence to produce a false certificate with the view of purchasing or acquiring any firearm or ammunition. Depending on the facts of the case, however, the CPS may charge these cases as a possession offence under section 1 or section 5 FA 1968. There may also be other offences considered depending on what the individual who purchases the firearms does with it.
The CPS holds management information which shows the number of offences charged by way of Section 3(5), Section 1 and Section 5 FA 1968 in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of offences charged by Act and Section in which a prosecution commenced between 2006 and 2025. The CPS is unable to differentiate whether the offences charged under section 1 or section 5 FA 1968 involved the individual using a false certificate; therefore, the information in the table below is for all offences charged under those sections of the FA 1968.
| Section 1 FA 1968 | Section 5 FA 1968 | Section 5(1A) FA 1968 | Section 5(2A) FA 1968 | Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and section 5 FA 1968 | Section 3(5) FA1968 |
2006 | 967 | 2,100 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2007 | 1,054 | 2,698 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2008 | 1,107 | 2,775 | 115 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2009 | 1,091 | 2,747 | 146 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2010 | 942 | 2,543 | 137 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2011 | 987 | 2,638 | 169 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
2012 | 891 | 2,219 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2013 | 739 | 1,912 | 168 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2014 | 660 | 1,874 | 227 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
2015 | 718 | 1,927 | 265 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 647 | 1,959 | 420 | 25 | 1 | 0 |
2017 | 781 | 1,792 | 364 | 55 | 1 | 0 |
2018 | 788 | 1,733 | 326 | 61 | 0 | 0 |
2019 | 627 | 1,878 | 287 | 44 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 451 | 1,613 | 118 | 51 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 702 | 2,188 | 108 | 63 | 0 | 4 |
2022 | 687 | 1,695 | 54 | 90 | 2 | 1 |
2023 | 766 | 1,612 | 41 | 57 | 1 | 0 |
2024 | 890 | 1,712 | 57 | 80 | 0 | 1 |
2025 | 813 | 1,551 | 45 | 66 | 0 | 0 |
TOTAL | 16,308 | 41,166 | 3,373 | 595 | 9 | 6 |
The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants prosecuted. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.
The CPS does not hold management information on convictions by Act and Section and is therefore unable to provide the requested conviction figures.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to support the Crown Prosecution Service in tackling serious financial crime in the waste sector.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS considers every case referred to it by investigators and will prosecute where the evidential and public interest tests set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors are met.
The Solicitor General supports the CPS in tackling serious financial crime across all sectors, including where offending occurs in the waste sector. This includes supporting cross-government economic crime reforms and investment in economic crime and asset recovery capability, helping the CPS and its law enforcement partners to prosecute offenders and recover criminal assets.