Duties (Hansard, 12 November 1984)

§ The Attorney-General

My duties, whether deriving from statute, from common law or simply from convention, are too numerous, and in some cases would require too detailed an exposition, to be described both comprehensively and accurately in a parliamentary answer. But the following is a summary list of the more important.I am the Government's principal legal adviser and, as such, give legal advice to the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees collectively and to my Ministerial colleagues individually (or to the officials of their Departments). This advice may have to concern any aspect of Government business and may involve any branch of the law, whether civil or criminal, public or private, domestic or international. I frequently advise on questions concerning proposed legislation and I have a special responsibility in respect of issues of legal policy (for example, retrospective effect, unusual powers or burden of proof) arising in connection with such legislation. I answer in the House of Commons for the Lord Chancellor and his Department as well as for myself and my own Department, for the Department of the 64W Director of Public Prosecutions and for the Treasury Solicitor's Department, and I am responsible for the carriage through the House of Commons of legislation which is promoted by the Lord Chancellor. I have a general responsibility for litigation to which the Crown (or, in international tribunals, Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom) is a party and I may be asked to advise on specific issues in relation to such litigation: I regularly supervise the conduct of the more important cases. I am myself the formal plaintiff or defendant in proceedings under the Crown Proceedings Act 1974 where there is no Government Department that is specifically authorised under the Act for that purpose. In my capacity as guardian of the public interest, I bring proceedings ex officio to secure the observance of legal obligations, especially by public bodies or by private persons alleged to be committing a public wrong, and I authorise such proceedings to be brought in my name at the relation of other persons. It is in this capacity also that I bring proceedings for contempt of court. It is also my responsibility to initiate proceedings to have somebody declared a vexatious litigant. I act for the Crown, in its capacity as parens patriae, in charity matters and have a variety of functions in that field which sometimes involve my being a party to litigation to determine the duties of charitable trustees or to protect the interests of the objects of charity. I nominate counsel to act for the Crown in both civil and criminal proceedings. In criminal matters, I superintend the discharge of his functions by the Director of Public Prosecutions and I have certain specific functions of my own in relation to prosecution: for example, prosecutions for certain offences can be brought only by me or with my consent and I also have the power to enter a nolle prosequi. I also have certain functions; in relation to the proceedings of coroners' courts. The above account relates to my functions as Attorney-General for England and Wales. I have similar, but not in all respects identical, functions in my capacity as Attorney-General for Northern Ireland. In particular, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland operates under my general superintendence. In addition to these matters in which I function as the legal adviser to the Government or as the representative of the Crown, I also have certain responsibilities, by virtue of my office as Attorney-General, to the two Houses of Parliament. Thus, I have a limited responsibility for advising the House of Commons or any of its Committees on certain aspects of its business and in particular I am a member of the Committee of Privileges and give advice to that Committee. I also advise the House of Lords in peerage cases. In yet a different capacity, but still by virtue of my office as Attorney-General, I have certain duties and responsibilities as leader of the English Bar and as leader of the Northern Ireland Bar. For a more comprehensive and discursive, though inevitably still incomplete, account of the functions of the Attorney-General, I refer my hon. Friend to the standard legal textbooks and in particular to Professor J. Ll. J. Edwards' seminal work, "The Law Officers of the Crown" (1964), which he has recently supplemented by a further book entitled "The Attorney General, Politics and the Public Interest" (1984).