§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Solicitor-General how many times since 1997 the Crown Prosecution Service has given advice to law enforcement agencies on whether an investigation into an offence of bribery of a foreign public official would have a realistic prospect of prosecution; and in how many of those instances its advice was that there would not be a realistic prospect of prosecution. [151440]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not keep records of the nationality of persons who are the subject of police investigations and about whom their advice is sought. In order to obtain this information all relevant files will have to be identified across the 42 Areas and individually checked. The information could not be obtained except at disproportionate costs. But even this would not necessarily provide comprehensive data as a number of relevant older files may well have been destroyed in accordance with archiving procedures.