Speeches by Reeves.

“I think that is with the Home Office for consideration before being published. You have had Fisher and you have had Leveson. Both those reports deal with disclosure. It is the focus of the Fisher review. My understanding is that it will be for the Home Office to set out the response to the review.”

“Graham McNulty has been appointed as interim director until January next year. He comes from within the organisation. Again, he has a law enforcement background. He has been able to hit the ground running in that interim director role. I met him yesterday and last week. I am in regular contact with him. This is a big r…”

“To start with, it is important to say that we superintend the SFO, but it is operationally independent. We do not make decisions on individual cases.”

“We do not direct the SFO on individual cases. In relation to the case that you refer to, you are right to highlight that it was a long-running case. There were, as I understand it, a number of difficulties, but the disclosure issue was in effect the thing that then led the case to not go forward as planned. In relation…”

“Yes, absolutely. I do not want to mislead anyone. In relation to that time period that I referred to, 63% had their sentences increased. Sometimes I will refer a case and the Court of Appeal will not grant leave to hear it. Sentencing is a matter for the Sentencing Council and for colleagues in the Ministry of Justice.…”

“It is not within our gift to publish that response. I cannot speak for the Home Secretary. It would not be right to do so. My understanding is that it should be published soon, but I cannot speak for the Home Secretary. I am sure you appreciate that.”

“That is a really important point. I know that ministerial colleagues in the Ministry of Justice who have policy ownership of this issue are looking at it. It is important. I have set out why I think the unduly lenient sentence scheme is so important within our criminal justice system, both for victims and for the wider…”

“Just for clarification, the stats you read out are slightly different from the stats in my time period. We might be using slightly different time periods.”

“That is a really important point. I speak for both the Attorney General and myself when I say that judicial independence is of absolute importance. It is a cornerstone of our democracy and should not be undermined. The unduly lenient sentence scheme is there so that if victims, or anyone, think a sentence, on the face …”

“The most serious youth cases will be transferred up to the Crown court for sentence, and of course at that point the ULS scheme kicks in. It is not within my remit, as I am sure you understand, to decide what cases are heard in youth courts and what cases are heard for sentence in the Crown court. The MOJ published a W…”

“Thanks for that. In terms of the CPS role, I know it has been working with the police. I had a question about this at the last oral questions a couple of weeks ago. I know that the CPS worked with the Met over a number of years. As you rightly say, it is almost 10 years since the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. I also know …”

“I do not think that is how I would characterise the relationship. It is operationally independent, so it is not for me to walk into the offices of the SFO—”

“This is really important, and I was very determined to push it forward. There has been a lot of campaigning over the years, in particular by bereaved family members who apply to the scheme late. The campaigner who comes to mind is Tracey Hanson, whose son Josh was murdered. She was not informed about the scheme. She ha…”

“The regime that we have, which is really important, applies to sentences that are not just lenient but unduly so. It is important to have that in mind. It has to be “unduly”, so is it outside the range of sentences that a judge could reasonably consider appropriate? It is a high bar. Lots of cases are referred under th…”

“Yes.”

“If you’ll let me answer, it is not for me to walk into the offices of the SFO, pull up a case file and say, “Well, I think you should do it like this,” or, “You should do it like that,” or, “You should have taken that action there.” That would be interfering with the operational independence of the SFO.”

“If it were a case where a judge has fallen into gross error or not properly considered the sentencing guidelines— there might be cases where, for example, aggravating factors have not been adequately considered by the judge—if I do not consider the sentence to be reasonably appropriate, I would refer it up. There might…”

“There is also an inspectorate that will inspect the SFO. Again, I meet regularly with the chief inspector. I will have quite frank conversations with the inspector about what is and is not working on disclosure issues. There was a recent report on the use of counsel that the inspectorate carried out. I will work with t…”

“The stats that I read out at the beginning were for the time period 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026. That is why those figures might not quite marry up with each other, depending on your time period.”

“Those are probably questions for the Courts Minister. I can check if we have written, following those oral questions. If we have not, I will make sure that we do. Obviously I will need to speak to colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to get clarity on that point. Obviously, this is their policy area.”