Overview
- Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson told MPs the case could not proceed because prosecutors lacked evidence that China qualified as an 'enemy' under the Official Secrets Act, meaning a judge would likely rule there was no case to answer.
- Deputy national security adviser Matt Collins said he provided three statements detailing a range of Chinese threats but did not label China a generic or active threat because that was not government policy at the time, adding he was surprised the case was dropped.
- Lead prosecutor Tom Little KC said Collins’s refusal to state China was an active threat at the material time was fatal to the prosecution and could not be fixed by calling alternative witnesses or cross‑examining their own witness.
- The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy will question the Attorney General, who wrote that he had no role in the decision to discontinue the case and only learned it would be dropped at a 3 September meeting with the DPP.
- Conservative MPs sought a Commons vote to force release of related 'China files' but were defeated, as legal critic Lord Alex Carlile KC separately argued the CPS erred and could have pursued attempted espionage charges.