Overview
- The Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges last month against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, with the Director of Public Prosecutions saying Matthew Collins’s evidence fell short of proving China was a national‑security threat at the relevant time.
- Downing Street released Collins’s statements describing alleged tasking by an agent known as ‘Alex’ and a flow of reports, some said to reach senior official Cai Qi, while both defendants continued to deny wrongdoing.
- Police confirmed Berry was stopped under Schedule 3 at Heathrow on 2 February 2023, and multiple outlets reported he had about £4,000 in cash as officers seized devices later used to develop the case.
- Political scrutiny has intensified, with Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee announcing an investigation into how classified material was used and MPs demanding fuller explanations for the collapse.
- Reporting has highlighted a late‑summer high‑level meeting about the impending trial and noted that later witness wording about seeking a “positive relationship with China” was cited by critics as weakening the prosecution’s position.