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Two influential UK House of Commons committees have demanded further explanation from prosecutors after they unexpectedly dropped a case against two men accused of spying on behalf of China in parliament.
Dame Karen Bradley and Andy Slaughter, chairs of the home affairs and justice select committees, called for the Crown Prosecution Service to provide “a clear explanation” about why it opted this month not to proceed with charges against Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33.
The two men — from Whitechapel in east London and Witney in Oxfordshire respectively — had been due to go on trial in October charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act 1911.
Cash and Berry were charged in April last year with “providing prejudicial information to a foreign state, China”. They had consistently denied the allegations after first being arrested in 2023.
The CPS cited a lack of evidence for its decision, announced on September 15. But in a letter on Monday, Bradley and Slaughter told Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions and head of the CPS, that the explanation “falls some way short of the level of detail that is acceptable for a case of this seriousness”.
“It is the role of our committees to scrutinise the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and to hold to account those responsible for any serious failings,” they wrote.
Asking Parkinson to respond by October 8, Bradley and Slaughter called for more details “behind the changes in the standard or availability of evidence which led to your decision”.
The case has attracted significant attention in parliament since Cash was previously director of the China Research Group, a hawkish Conservative campaign group on China-UK relations.
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who co-founded the CRG, told parliament this month he had been “spied upon” and that he found it “astonishing” that the case had been dropped and that MPs “were not being told why”.
Bradley and Slaughter’s letter comes after two senior Conservative MPs called on their committees to probe the CPS’s handling of the case.
Cash this month said he was “relieved that justice has been served” and accused MPs of a “further campaign” to assert his guilt, which simply amplified the injustice he had already had to face.
But MPs reacted with fury to the dropping of the prosecution in a debate, with politicians close to the case telling the Commons they had been told the outcome of the two-year investigation was a “slam dunk” and questioning whether there had been political interference.
In a letter to Chris Philp, Tory shadow home secretary, after the CPS dropped the case, Parkinson said the independence of his team was “completely respected within Whitehall and government” and gave his “own assurance” that there had been no outside pressure to drop the case.
Asked about Bradley and Slaughter’s letter, the CPS said on Tuesday “at present there is nothing further to add to the letter [from Parkinson to Philp]”.
