Ministerial role

Attorney General

Organisations: Attorney General's Office
Current role holder: The Rt Hon Michael Ellis QC MP

Responsibilities

The Attorney General is chief legal adviser to the Crown and has a number of independent public interest functions, as well as overseeing the Law Officers’ departments.

Responsibilities include:

  • Overall responsibility for the work of the Attorney General’s Office and superintended Departments (the Government Legal Department, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate)
  • Specific statutory duty to superintend the discharge of duties by the Director of Public Prosecutions (who heads the Crown Prosecution Service) and the Director of the Serious Fraud Office
  • Non-statutory general oversight of the Services Prosecuting Authority and government prosecuting departments
  • Government’s principal legal adviser dealing with (amongst others) questions of international law, human rights, devolution and COVID-19 issues
  • Public interest functions, for example, reference of unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal, bringing proceedings for contempt of court and intervention in certain proceedings to protect charities
  • Questions of law arising on Bills and with issues of legal policy
  • Legal aspects of all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government, (including matters related to future relations with the EU)

The Attorney General also holds the separate office of Advocate General for Northern Ireland. The Advocate General for Scotland has specific responsibility for Scottish law matters.

Current role holder

The Rt Hon Michael Ellis QC MP

Michael Ellis was appointed Attorney General on 2 March 2021 while Suella Braverman was designated as a Minister on Leave. He was appointed Solicitor General on 26 July 2019.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department for Transport from 23 May 2019 to 25 July 2019. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January 2018 to May 2019.

He was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 17 July 2016 to 8 January 2018.

He was elected Conservative MP for Northampton North in May 2010.

More about this person

Previous holders of this role

  1. The Rt Hon Suella Braverman QC MP

    2020 to 2021

  2. The Rt Hon Geoffrey Cox QC MP

    2018 to 2020

  3. The Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP

    2014 to 2018

  4. The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC

    2010 to 2014

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