Question to the Attorney General:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 16 January (HL4533), in cases where there is no evidence at all against an accused, whether the CPS intends to drop the wording recommended by Sir Richard Henriques that "the case failed to meet the evidential test", and to change the Code accordingly.

The Crown Prosecution Service does not currently intend to change the wording recommended by Sir Richard Henriques for public announcements of decisions not to charge an individual, namely that “the case failed to meet the evidential test”.

The Crown Prosecution Service has no immediate plans to change the wording of the evidential stage of the full Code test.