Attorney General Lord Hermer and Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones have been summoned to a public hearing on the collapse of the China spy case.
The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has asked both men to give evidence to its inquiry on October 28, as scrutiny on the Government continues over the dropping of charges against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry last month.
Committee chairman Matt Western wrote in letters to both men: “The purpose of the inquiry is to examine the adequacy of processes and decision-making in relation to espionage cases, and to bring clarity to some of the questions that have arisen in recent weeks.”
Chair @MattWestern_ has written to the @attorneygeneral and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster @cabinetofficeuk requesting evidence relating to our inquiry on Espionage cases and the Official Secrets Acts.
— Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (@JointCtteNSS) October 21, 2025
Details of public hearings will be announced in due course.
He posed a series of questions for them to answer ahead of the hearing, including asking Mr Jones to say whether the Chinese state poses a direct threat to UK national security interests.
Other queries included whether the Government’s assessment of this changed since 2021, whether it would be appropriate for a minister to ask officials to ensure the evidence provided was robust enough to meet the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) needs, and whether it was usual for prosecutors to make multiple similar requests for Government evidence.
Lord Hermer was asked about the Attorney General’s “statutory duty to superintend the discharge of duties by the Director of Public Prosecutions” (DPP) in relation to national security cases, and whether the DPP would have made him aware of any difficulty in securing appropriate evidence from the Government.
Lord Hermer and Mr Jones have until noon on October 23 to respond to the panel.
The CPS dropped the charges, issued under the Official Secrets Act, against Mr Cash and Mr Berry in September, a month before a trial was due to take place.
Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to Beijing.
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has come under pressure to provide a fuller explanation for the abandonment of the case.
