Rt Hon. Alex Chalk KC | HM Solicitor General UK 2019-2022

In 2021 Alex was appointed Solicitor General.

The Attorney General and the Solicitor General (with the Advocate General for Scotland) are known as the Law Officers. They are Ministers of the Crown and sit in one or other House of Parliament.

The Law Officers are the chief legal advisers to government. In that capacity they are consulted on the most sensitive or difficult legal issues facing the government, including issues of international and EU law. They deal with questions of law arising on government Bills and with issues of legal policy.

They also have oversight of major international and domestic litigation involving the Government.

The Attorney General, supported by the Solicitor General, has statutory responsibility for superintending the main prosecuting authorities in England and Wales – the Crown Prosecution Service (headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions) and the Serious Fraud Office.

The Attorney General has, with the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Justice, a shared responsibility for the development of criminal justice policy. This role in particular reflects the Attorney’s responsibility for the prosecuting authorities and their key place in the criminal justice system.

The Law Officers have a number of common law and statutory responsibilities which they discharge independently of government as “guardians of the public interest”. These include referring unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal; applying for orders under the Supreme Court Act 1981 to declare persons vexatious litigants; intervening in certain proceedings to protect the interests of charities; and bringing proceedings for contempt of court.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

Successfully Referred Angel Lynn Abuser to Court of Appeal for Sentence Uplift

A Leicestershire man received an increased sentence following the kidnapping of Angel Lynn after the Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC MP referred the case to the Court of Appeal. Chay Bowskill, 20, was in an abusive relationship with Angel Lynn, 21, which culminated in Bowskill kidnapping Lynn on 17 September 2020. The victim was forced into a van, which she subsequently exited while it was travelling at speed on a dual carriageway. This resulted in her suffering a traumatic brain injury which has left her dependent on carers and unable to live independently. In addition to the kidnapping, Bowskill was also convicted of engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour and perverting the course of justice. On 26 January 2022, Bowskill was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months’ detention at Leicester Crown Court. Following the sentencing, Alex referred Bowskill’s sentence to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. On 23 March the Court found his original sentence to be unduly lenient and increased his sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Overhauled AG's Disclosure Guidelines to Bring More Rapists to Justice

Alex made changes to the Attorney General's Guidelines on Disclosure to help investigators bring rapists to justice whilst preserving the right to a fair trial. The changes included measures to tackle intrusive trawls through victims' backgrounds (for example by seizing social services records). Chalk also addressed the burden placed on police of redacting material for disclosure. When he learned that one force was spending £1m on a disclosure specialist team to deal with redaction – which Chalk described ‘in effect a digital Tipp-Exing unit’ - he worked up update the Guidance to provide a more proportionate framework.

Helped Secure Major Boost to Number of Rape Prosecutions

In 2019, the Government commissioned the End-to-End Rape Review, interrogating every stage of the justice process, setting out eight areas that needed relentless focus. The subsequent Action Plan (which Alex worked on as Solicitor General) targeted each area in turn, including increases to the support available for victims, ensuring the police and CPS had the capacity to build the best possible cases, transforming the way officers and prosecutors collaborate in the investigation and prosecution of rape - and drastically improving victims’ experience in court. It also set out ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police (to the CPS), charged by the CPS, and going to court, back to 2016 levels. Those targets were met, and by the time he left office rape prosecutions were at their highest level in more than a decade.