Overview

• Prosecutors last month dropped charges against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who had been accused of passing politically sensitive material on UK China policy to a senior Chinese official.
• The Telegraph reported that ministers withdrew a senior civil servant expected to testify that China was an "enemy" of the UK, which the 1911 Act required the prosecution to establish.
• Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson described the "enemy" test as a legal limitation and said there had been an evidential failure this year, while maintaining that the CPS acted independently.
• Security minister Dan Jarvis told Parliament the decision to halt the case was independent of government and said ministers should not speculate on reasons.
• Conservative figures including Alicia Kearns and Priti Patel, as well as Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, called for transparency and raised concerns about ongoing foreign interference targeting Parliament, while the defendants deny wrongdoing.