Government Departments: Legal Opinion
The question
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2025 to Question 45656 on Government Departments: Legal Opinion, for what reason changes were made to the previous edition; and if she will publish the previous edition.
Answered by Lucy Rigby
In November 2024, the Attorney General issued amended guidance for assessing legal risk across government to raise standards for calibrating legality and to ensure government lawyers can give full and frank advice to the Government.
The updated legal risk guidance is focused on supporting Ministers in making policy and operational decisions.
It does not give government lawyers any form of veto – decisions are for policymakers – a point the Attorney General’s guidance makes plain in express terms and a point the Attorney General has made clear publicly.
Many elements remain unchanged from previous versions of the guidance, and it retains the same three elements of the risk assessment.
All versions of the legal risk guidance were published at the time they were amended.
The 2015 version remains available here: Legal_Risk_Guidance_-_Amended_July_2015.pdf.
The 2022 version of the guidance is not currently available, but the Attorney General’s Office can provide a copy.
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