Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the number of specific licences granted by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation under the category of legal fees that permitted the use of frozen assets to (a) initiate and (b) pursue legal proceedings against UK (i) citizens and (ii) residents; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of its policies on licensed funds on Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

Answered by Rachel Blake

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation does not hold data in a form that would allow it to identify how many legal fees licences have been granted permitting the use of frozen assets to fund legal action against UK citizens or residents.

Following an internal review commissioned by Treasury Ministers, the Government set out its position in a Written Ministerial Statement in January 2023, confirming that OFSI's legal fees licensing decisions must carefully balance the fundamental right to legal representation against the wider aims and purpose of sanctions. Whilst it remains for the Courts, not the Government, to decide whether legal claims should be permitted to succeed, the Government is clear that courts and the legal system must not be used by those seeking to silence investigations in the public interest.

As a result of the review, the Government committed to further targeted changes to the legal fees licensing process, introducing a presumption that applications for specific licences relating to defamation and similar cases will be rejected, and amending the Russian and Belarusian Legal Services General Licence so that it no longer authorises legal fees for such cases.

In parallel, the Government announced primary legislation tackling Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), including a statutory definition, an early dismissal process, and costs protection, and updated the delegation framework to make clear when Ministers, rather than officials, must take licensing decisions personally. That primary legislation has since been enacted. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, led by the Ministry of Justice, includes provisions specifically addressing SLAPPs, delivering on that commitment. The Act can be found here: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals were arrested and charged in the UK on the basis of information provided from European law enforcement databases in each year between 2010 and 2019.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom make use of a range of domestic and international information sources when preventing, detecting and investigating crime, including information provided from European law enforcement databases. However, neither the Home Office nor UK law enforcement agencies routinely record whether an arrest or charge has resulted from information obtained from a specific law enforcement database.

The Home Office therefore does not hold figures for the number of individuals arrested and charged in the United Kingdom on the basis of information provided from European law enforcement databases between 2010 and 2019.