What is the attorney generals role?
Lady Scotland’s spokesman said she will “assess whether there is sufficient evidence for a prosecution and whether it is in the public interest to do so.” Lord Goldsmith, the last attorney general faced with approving a prosecution of BAE, decided to close down the SFO’s investigation into Saudi arms deals in 2006. Discussions leading up to that decision were secret. This time, the process will be more open. What does BAE say? As little as possible. For several years, the company would only repeat one simple line – that it denied all wrongdoing. More recently, it has claimed to be co-operating with investigators and says it wants the criminal inquiry “to run its course”. Who runs BAE? At the time of the corruption allegations, the company’s chairman, Sir Richard Evans, and its chief executive, Mike Turner, were the key figures. Both have since moved on, and the current chairman, Dick Olver, has tried to present a different face for the company.
