Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been charged with human trafficking offences in relation to small boat crossings in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Human trafficking flagged prosecutions data, which includes offences committed under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and comparable offences committed prior to 2015, is published each quarter. The latest information was published on 17 July and can be found here. It is not possible to distil from this data whether any of these cases involved people who arrived in the UK on a small boat without conducting a manual review of cases which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) considers all cases referred to it by law enforcement. It has increased prosecutions for immigration related offences since the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 came into force, which introduced a new offence of illegal arrival and increased sentencing for illegal entry and related offences and facilitation offences contained in the Immigration Act 1971.
Organised crime groups are highly adaptable and are exploiting people for gain with no regard for their safety or our border controls. A multi-agency response is key to tackling this. The CPS plays an important part in the whole system response to organised immigration crime in the Border Security Command. The CPS has also increased engagement with overseas partners to maximise opportunities to collaborate on information and evidence gathering, to prosecute more swiftly.
Under the Modern Slavery Action Plan, the Home Office has commissioned research to better understand the links between organised immigration crime and modern slavery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Crown Prosecution Service has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spent the below amounts on equipment such as chairs, monitors and desks to enable to staff to work from home effectively in the last three years:
Financial year | CPS homeworker Spend |
2024-25 | £295,822 |
2023-24 | £336,206 |
2022-23 | £448,551 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Serious Fraud Office has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
All Serious Fraud Office (SFO) staff are routinely provided with laptops that enable them to work flexibly in the office, at home or other locations.
In financial year 2024-25, the SFO spent £1311.77 on equipment to enable a small number of staff needing workplace adjustments to work from home. No data is recorded specifically on workplace adjustment expenditure for home-working in the previous two years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much the Government Legal Department has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with the Government Legal Department’s (GLD) hybrid working policy, the Department has spent the following amounts for each financial year on providing staff with the relevant equipment and furniture to enable them to work effectively at home:
Financial Year | Total Amount Spent |
2022-23 | £33,537.96 |
2023-24 | £63,729.61 |
2024-25 | £62,864.02 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much her Department has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Attorney General’s Office operates 60% minimum office attendance for most staff and hybrid working. To support staff working at home the department offers a contribution to equipment. The cost to the department in each of the last three years is £284.00 in 2023, £578.32 in 2024, and £214.94 in 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to increase the number of apprenticeship starts in her Department.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, the ‘Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship’ (CLA), will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
In addition, my department continues to offer apprenticeship opportunities each year. Given the size of the Attorney General’s Office (approximately 60 staff) this number can vary. We currently have one apprentice.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what recent steps she has taken to help ensure the effective prosecution of wildlife crime in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of wildlife crime in Lincolnshire and across the country.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has fourteen Areas (regional teams) across England and Wales – the CPS East Midlands Area serves the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Nottinghamshire including the cities of Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, and the county of Rutland.
More broadly, we have announced that the CPS will receive an additional £49m to support victims of crime and transform the services they provide to the public.
We are introducing tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, stronger neighbourhood policing, and robust laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
We are recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers across England and Wales.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
CPS prosecutors also work closely with local police officers and officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle all types of rural crime.
The CPS also provides legal guidance on wildlife, rural, and heritage crime, which is available to all its prosecutors to assist them in dealing with these cases. It also provides specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute these crimes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for what purposes the Government Legal Department has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Government Legal Department is making limited use of generative AI (“Gen AI”) powered by large language models. Since December 2024, GLD has been running a trial of Microsoft’s M365 Copilot, which now has 100 participants and will shortly increase to 150. GLD’s AI Programme is considering where AI may be used and provide tangible benefits within specific work areas and processes, including proposed testing of online legal research tools with Gen AI-based capabilities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for what purposes the Crown Prosecution Service has used AI in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is exploring new and existing technologies, including AI, to enhance efficiency. AI has the potential to support the CPS day-to-day in the delivery of justice. I am keen to explore the opportunities for efficiency that this new technology can bring, being mindful of ethical considerations.
A pilot of Microsoft Copilot concluded in August 2024, with approximately over 400 staff across the organisation given access to Copilot to assist them in everyday tasks such as summarising emails, creating PowerPoint presentations, and analysing excel data.
The scheme established that that Copilot reduced the amount of time it took staff to complete administrative and day-to-day tasks and has the capacity to save thousands of hours across the organisation.