Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the Attorney General fast-tracked the prosecution of Lucy Connolly in August 2024; and what reference he made to the Code for Crown Prosecutors to support that decision.

There were a number of similar prosecutions at the time which were responded to in the same manner and timeline. Between 9 and 14 August, the AG responded to 14 other applications for consent in similar matters. 11 of those had a decision within 24 hours, a similar timescale to that in which consent to prosecute was granted in respect of Lucy Connolly.

Certain offences require Law Officer consent to prosecute, and inciting racial hatred is one such offence. The Attorney General provided consent to the DPP to prosecute for this case under the Public Order Act 1986.

When providing consent, the Law Officers must be satisfied that the evidential test and the public interest test of the Code for Crown Prosecutors are met. This case and all similar cases were considered by reference to the test in the usual way.

When applying for consent, the CPS will independently provide an indication of proposed timescales for consent to be in place, and wherever possible the AGO will work to those.