UK prosecution of alleged Chinese language spies was ‘shambolic’ says Parliamentary committee

The UK’s failed try and convey a prosecution towards two alleged Chinese language spies was “shambolic”, “beset by confusion” and suffered from “systemic failures”, a cross-party group of MPs and friends has concluded.

The high-profile espionage case towards Christopher Money and Christopher Berry collapsed in 2024, when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined there was not adequate proof to point out that China was a menace to UK nationwide safety on the time of the alleged offences.

The CPS deserted the case regardless of witness statements from the UK authorities deputy nationwide safety adviser (DNSA), who described China as “the largest state-based menace to the UK’s financial safety” and pointed to state-linked cyber assaults towards authorities and industrial targets, in keeping with the MPs’ report.

The chief prosecution witness within the case, DNSA Matthew Collins, wrote in witness statements that “China’s espionage operations threaten the UK’s financial prosperity and resilience, and the integrity of democratic establishments”, and that China was behind “malicious cyber exercise … focusing on democratic establishments and Parliamentarians as a part of large-scale espionage campaigns”.

The 2 accused – Money, a former Parliamentary researcher, and Berry, a trainer – had been charged in April 2020 for spying offences beneath the Official Secrets and techniques Act 1911. They had been accused of passing details about UK politics, MPs and UK authorities coverage to a Chinese language intelligence agent, earlier than subsequently being acquitted after the federal government dropped the case.

Based on a report revealed at the moment by the Joint Committee on the Nationwide Safety Technique (JCNSS), it was “not instantly apparent” that the director of public prosecutions lacked the proof to point out that China was a menace to nationwide safety on the time of the alleged offences, given the energy of Collins’ witness statements.

Based on the report, prosecutors raised questions in regards to the case towards Money and Berry following a court docket ruling after the conviction in Might 2025 of a Bulgarian spy ring working for the Russian state, led by . The ruling addressed the that means of the phrase “enemy” beneath the Official Secrets and techniques Act 1911.

The Court docket of Enchantment discovered that there was “no purpose why the time period ‘an enemy’ shouldn’t embody a rustic which represents a present menace to the UK”. It went on to say {that a} jury could be nicely positioned to evaluate the proof and details.

The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, advised the committee, nevertheless, that the Roussev judgment meant prosecutors wanted to reveal that the “totality of threats posed by China” when the alleged offences occurred “made China a menace to nationwide safety”.  

Parkinson went on to inform Parliamentarians that prosecutors had been unable to safe proof that China posed “an lively” and “present” menace to UK nationwide safety on the time of the alleged offences.

The committee stated that occasions within the case “raised eyebrows”, notably following a call to drop the prosecution two days after a gathering between the UK’s nationwide safety adviser (NSA), Jonathan Powell, and different officers to “focus on the administration of the UK’s bilateral relationship with China”.

The committee stated it didn’t discover proof of a coordinated high-level effort to break down the prosecution or any deliberate efforts to hinder it. But it surely did discover proof of a course of “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations”.

Constitutional safeguards designed to guard the independence of prison proceedings as an alternative “catalysed a disaster of public confidence and fuelled allegations of conspiracy on the highest degree of presidency”, the Parliamentarians discovered.

Matt Western MP, chair of the joint committee, which has made suggestions to enhance the dealing with of future circumstances, stated he hoped the committee’s investigation would draw a line beneath the case.

“As the worldwide safety atmosphere worsens, delicate nationwide safety circumstances will come up extra steadily. The federal government should present the general public that it’s assured in standing as much as adversaries when required. Failing to take action will corrode public belief in our establishments,” he added.