Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what the average time taken by the Crown Prosecution Service to make a charging decision was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the mean average in calendar days from referral for a charging decision or early advice to the decision to authorise a charge against suspects.
This was 46 days in 2024-25, 44 days in 2023-24, 45 days in 2022-23 and 42 days in 2021-22.
The timeliness data includes cases where the police have submitted a file for early advice as well as those for charging decision. The 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 more 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.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what the current vacancy rate is for Crown Prosecutors, broken down by region.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The overall vacancy rate for ‘Crown Prosecutors’* across the 14 regional, geographic areas that make up the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is 4.5% (at the end of December 2025). The table below includes the regional breakdown for CPS vacancy rates applicable to these legal roles.
For context, the vacancy rates are shown alongside the number of vacancies within each geographic area, against the current area Full Time Equivalent (FTE).
*These figures include all legal staff designated as ‘Crown Prosecutors’ only.
| Actual FTE | Budget FTE (T2) | Vacancies | Vacancy Rate |
Cymru Wales Area | 151.85 | 163.28 | 11.43 | 7.0% |
East of England Area | 145.80 | 151.66 | 5.86 | 3.9% |
East Midlands Area | 176.25 | 192.83 | 16.58 | 8.6% |
London North | 253.48 | 278.48 | 25.00 | 9.0% |
London South | 248.80 | 239.43 | (9.37) | -3.9% |
Mersey Cheshire Area | 133.79 | 137.32 | 3.53 | 2.6% |
North East Area | 110.03 | 130.07 | 20.04 | 15.4% |
North West Area | 251.40 | 243.14 | (8.26) | -3.4% |
South East Area | 145.64 | 151.46 | 5.82 | 3.8% |
South West Area | 128.69 | 128.50 | (0.19) | -0.1% |
Thames and Chiltern Area | 127.48 | 144.01 | 16.53 | 11.5% |
Wessex Area | 121.19 | 122.75 | 1.56 | 1.3% |
West Midlands Area | 230.80 | 247.82 | 17.01 | 6.9% |
Yorkshire and Humberside Area | 237.70 | 247.53 | 9.82 | 4.0% |
14 Geographic Areas | 2,462.91 | 2,578.27 | 115.36 | 4.5% |
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Serious Fraud Office plans to update (a) operational guidance and (b) case selection criteria for foreign bribery cases.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The SFO’s operational guidance and processes are kept under constant review to ensure they continue to meet operational needs. The SFO’s case selection criteria are established in the Director’s Statement of Principle and ensure that the SFO meets its statutory obligations to investigate and prosecute serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption.
The Law Officers have supervisory oversight of the SFO’s work and regularly assess their operational performance. The SFO’s work is also independently reviewed by the HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate to ensure that they are following good practice.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to promote public awareness of the foreign bribery indicators published by the Serious Fraud Office and Five Eyes partners, and to encourage reporting of suspected bribery.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
I regularly report on the work of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) publicly and in Parliament. This includes highlighting new guidance and casework updates published by the SFO and encouraging reporting of crime, including bribery.
The SFO promotes cooperation from business, including the benefits of self-reporting, and the Director and his senior team speak directly to businesses. The SFO routinely engages with the media to promote the SFO’s work and raise awareness of new publications, including the International Foreign Bribery Taskforce’s indicators of foreign bribery.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what assessment he has made of the legality of the US military operation to capture President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
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: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many and what proportion of civil servants in her Department are (a) on temporary contracts and are (b) consultants.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Information on the number of staff employed by the Law Officers’ Departments on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address:
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web addresses.
Government Legal Department Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25 - GOV.UK
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service for immigration offences in the last three years were not prosecuted on evidential grounds.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The CPS does not hold the data requested. To establish whether suspects on cases where immigration offences were considered by reviewing lawyers at pre-charge stage, where then a subsequent no prosecution decision on evidential grounds was made in the last three years, would require a manual review of case files and this would be at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department have been employed for the purpose of making social media content in each of the past three years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Due to the difficulty of disaggregating the number of staff who are employed to produce social media content from staff who are employed to work on broader digital communications, it is not possible to report exact figures in response to this question.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Crown Prosecution Service provides guidance to prosecutors on addressing expert or academic evidence that uses alternative terminology for female genital mutilation in criminal proceedings.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
FGM is clearly defined in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and CPS prosecutors apply that statutory framework alongside the Code for Crown Prosecutors. CPS’s prosecution guidance for FGM recognises that expert medical evidence may assist a jury on technical matters; however, alternative terminology used in academic or professional contexts does not alter the offence definitions or the legal tests. Prosecutors assess any expert evidence for relevance, admissibility and weight, and will ensure the statutory terminology is used in court.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether she has had discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service on the potential impact of articles in medical journals on the willingness of (a) victims of and (b) witnesses to female genital mutilation to come forward.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Victim and witness confidence is vital to tackling FGM. While the CPS does not comment on individual publications, prosecutors work closely with police and partners under established FGM joint protocols to provide early advice, safeguarding and sensitive handling of evidence. We recognise that victims rarely use the term “mutilation” themselves; language is often drawn out through expert evidence.
The CPS understands that in some communities FGM is practised with mistaken belief that is will benefit the girl in some way, but this does not detract from the fact that it causes long term harm and trauma to victims and remains a serious criminal offence. The CPS continues to maintain dedicated prosecution guidance and training to ensure cases are built robustly where the legal test is met.
Whilst securing prosecutions is important, protective measures are central to safeguarding victims. Protective measures, such as Forced Marriage Protection Orders, FGM Protection Orders are designed for of these crimes and safeguard them from on-going risk.