Internet
Jim Shannon: To ask the Attorney-General what services the Law Officers' Departments provide that are (a) available online only and (b) planned to move to online only. [190358]
The Solicitor-General: Information on the work of the Law Officers' Departments websites can be found on the Gov.uk website or on their own websites. However, as their work is aimed at providing legal support to the Government or conducting prosecutions on behalf of the Crown, they do not provide any online services directly to the public.
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Legal Representation
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on defendants who represent themselves in very high cost cases. [190255]
The Attorney-General: I have regular meetings with the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), to discuss a wide range of topics including issues related to legal costs. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the practice of the Attorney-General's Office to provide details of all such discussions.
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General what estimate has been made of the number of upcoming very high cost prosecutions by the (a) Crown Prosecution Service and (b) Serious Fraud Office that will involve defendants who will be representing themselves. [190259]
The Solicitor-General: There are currently three prosecutions being managed by the Crown Prosecution Service under the very high cost case arrangements where the prosecution have been informed that the defendants are currently unrepresented, and two such prosecutions being managed by the Serious Fraud Office. It is of course possible that representation will be secured by defendants in these cases in due course.
Sentencing: Appeals
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General what proportion of the sentences that he successfully referred to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient in 2013 were the result of guilty pleas. [190262]
The Solicitor-General: Of the 60 sentences that were successfully referred by the Law Officers to the Court of Appeal in 2013, 34 were the result of a guilty plea.
Serious Fraud Office
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General if he will investigate the extent and appropriateness of the Serious Fraud Office's co-operation with the Iranian authorities in recent years. [190257]
Karen Bradley: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Department.
As a matter of long-standing policy and practice the United Kingdom can neither confirm nor deny the extent of judicial cooperation with individual countries. However, the Home Office continuously reviews and looks at ways of improving judicial cooperation with other countries, including co-operation with countries (such as Iran) where the UK has human rights concerns (applying the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) guidance as appropriate). We will continue to review and refine our approach to judicial co-operation, in conjunction with other Government Departments including the SFO.
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Taxation: Fraud
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2014, Official Report, columns 466-8W, on taxation: fraud, what the annual sum total was of the confiscation orders listed in that answer. [190292]
The Solicitor-General: The following table below provides the total value of confiscation orders obtained by the Crown Prosecution Service during the past three financial years, for cases categorised as tax and benefit fraud or VAT fraud.
| Number of orders granted | Value of orders granted (£) | |
These data have been taken from the JARD database which reflects the status of the orders reported at the time the data are extracted. As a result, the amounts reported represent the total amounts paid up to the date the data were extracted, not the amounts paid in any
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given year. Payment data include payments made to satisfy the original order amount as well as any interest accrued on the original order amount.
Sentencing: Appeals
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Attorney-General how many appeals there have been against unduly lenient sentences of those sentenced in each year since 2010. [190258]
The Solicitor-General: The information is set out in the following table:
| Number of offenders whose sentences were referred to the Court of Appeal as potentially unduly lenient | Number of offenders whose sentences were increased (and proportion of total in brackets) | |
There is one outstanding case from 2013.