Hermer and Jones summoned to public hearing on China spy case collapse

Attorney General Lord Hermer and Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones have been summoned to a public hearing on the collapse of the China spy case.

Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has asked both men to give evidence to its inquiry on October 28, as scrutiny on the Government continues over the dropping of charges against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry last month.

Committee chairman Matt Western wrote in letters to both: “The purpose of the inquiry is to examine the adequacy of processes and decision-making in relation to espionage cases, and to bring clarity to some of the questions that have arisen in recent weeks.”

He posed a series of questions for them to answer ahead of the hearing, including asking Mr Jones to say whether the Chinese state represents a direct threat to UK national security interests.

Other queries included whether the Government’s assessment of this changed since 2021, whether it would be appropriate for a minister to ask officials to ensure the evidence provided was robust enough to meet the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) needs, and whether it was usual for prosecutors to make multiple similar requests for Government evidence.

Lord Hermer was asked about the Attorney General’s “statutory duty to superintend the discharge of duties by the Director of Public Prosecutions” (DPP) in relation to national security cases, and whether the DPP made him aware of any difficulty in securing appropriate evidence from the Government.

Lord Hermer and Mr Jones have until noon on October 23 to respond to the panel.

The Tories sought to maintain pressure on ministers over the case by demanding Lord Hermer, the Government’s top legal adviser, provide “a precise chronology and disclosure of documents” covering August and September – between the submission of the final Government witness statement and the case collapse.

Information demanded in a letter from shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and Tory peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson of Tredegar included when the Attorney General was first informed that the prosecution might be discontinued and whether he attempted to avert that outcome.

The CPS dropped the charges, issued under the Official Secrets Act, against Mr Cash and Mr Berry in September, a month before a trial was due to take place.

Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to Beijing.

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has come under pressure to provide a fuller explanation for the abandonment of the case.

He has blamed insufficient evidence being provided by the Government that Beijing represented a threat to the UK at the time of the alleged offences.

Mr Parkinson has been given until Friday to respond to questions from the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, Home Affairs, Justice and Foreign Affairs committees.

They included whether evidence was sought from other sources, such as intelligence material or ministers who might have described China as a threat, and what steps he took to inform the Government that the case would collapse without further evidence.

The committee chairs also asked whether deputy national security adviser Matt Collins, whose witness statements the DPP has blamed for the dropping of the case, was made fully aware of the evidential threshold.

The Government has insisted ministers did not intervene in the case or attempt to make representations to ensure the strength of evidence, for fear of interfering with the course of justice.

Elsewhere, a decision on whether to approve China’s new “super-embassy” in central London has been postponed as the row over the plans continues.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy last week urged Housing Secretary Steve Reed to reject Beijing’s application for the new embassy at the former Royal Mint, near the Tower of London, warning of spying risks due to the site’s proximity to communications networks and data centres.

Mr Reed did not meet the panel’s deadline to respond by Monday.