Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many nights were spent in hotels by Departmental staff in financial year 2024-25 by the star rating of the hotel.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
In 2024-25 there were a total of 61 nights spent in hotels by departmental staff where overnight stays were essential for departmental business. These are broken down in the following table.
Star rating | Stays |
3 Star | 2 |
4 Star | 11 |
5 Star | 1 |
Not rated | 47 |
For the hotels that do not have a star rating, these are classed as budget hotels.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions for human trafficking or sexual exploitation offences in each of the last three calendar years involved two or more defendants charged as part of the same case.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of prosecuted defendants flagged with the modern slavery (human trafficking) monitoring flag where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same case. The data is derived using a manual process as the CPS Case Management Information System does not report this information. As with any manual exercise, the data may be subject to errors in processing and the information is for operational use only.
The table below shows the flagged prosecution data (where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same cases) for the last three calendar years ending 31st December 2024.
Prosecuted defendants flagged with the modern slavery monitoring flag | |||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
Modern slavery flagged defendants with a completed prosecution outcome on cases with 2 or more defendants | 281 | 263 | 314 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||
The CPS define modern slavery as the following – for offences committed prior to 31st July 2015 ss57-59A Sexual Offences Act 2003, s4 Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, s71 Coroners and Justice 2009 and for offences committed after the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force on the 31st July 2015, s1, 2 and 4 of the Act. Included in the definition are the inchoate versions of the listed offences.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many civil servants employed by their Department work in roles primarily focused on (a) transgender policy, (b) diversity, (c) equity and (d) inclusion; and at what annual salary cost.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The AGO does not employ any Civil Servants whose role primarily focusses on (a) transgender policy, (b) diversity, (c) equity and (d) inclusion.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what the cost to the public purse was of feasibility studies conducted by their Department for projects that did not proceed in the last five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Attorney General’s Office has not conducted any feasibility studies within the time period, as such there has been no cost to the public purse.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for the total spend on (a) LinkedIn membership fees and (b) other subscriptions by her Department in the last financial year.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The department has no spend on LinkedIn membership fees, and has a total spend in 2024/25 of £4,322.00 on other subscriptions.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many staff in their Department have been on mental health leave for six months or more; and for what reason.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Cabinet Office publishes sickness absence data for the Civil Service on an annual basis, including by organisation and by absence reason. I refer you to the statistics publicly available which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence. The next release is likely to be around 18 December 2025.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many (a) active and (b) concluded cases the Government Legal Department has handled relating to legal challenges against the one-in, one-out migrant returns scheme; and what the total cost of that litigation has been.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The UK-France Treaty is an innovative pilot designed to deter illegal migration across the Channel. Litigation related to this pilot was anticipated and we are concentrating resources on robustly defending this so that removals can continue as planned. As of 28 November, 153 individuals have been returned to France through this agreement.
Operational details on the pilot are sensitive, and we will not be disclosing such information as it could inadvertently assist the organised immigration crime gangs that are behind small boats crossings.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how much her Department has spent on social media advertising by (a) influencer and (b) organisation in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The department has spent £0 on social media advertising in the last 5 financial years. All spend in these areas are subject to standard value for money assessments.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many employees in her Department earn (a) £100,000 and (b) £166,000 or more per year.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Attorney General’s Office follows Civil Service Commission guidance on recruitment of its staff and remunerates consistent to Cabinet Office rules. All government departments are required to publish the salaries of Senior Civil Servants in their Annual Report and Accounts laid in parliament.
I would direct the MP for Great Yarmouth to the HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the 2024-2025 financial year.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (Contracts Finder - GOV.UK). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023 above £12,000 inc VAT are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service. (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search).
No procurement contracts were awarded by the AGO below £12,000 during the 2024-2025 financial year.