Since 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom has stationed a Liaison Prosecutor at Eurojust. Christopher Williams took up the role in March 2022. He is supported by a team of assistants.
In 2023, the United Kingdom was involved in 275 new cases, 71 coordination meetings, 2 coordination centres and 29 joint investigation teams.
Christopher Williams was appointed Liaison Prosecutor for the United Kingdom in March 2022. Mr Williams was previously a prosecutor within the Specialist Fraud Division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), before being promoted to Unit Head in 2018, handling major international fraud cases. He joined the same division of the CPS in 2015, dealing with Letters of Request and attending various coordination meetings at Eurojust. In 2021, he represented the CPS in the GLOBE networking group of the United Nations during conferences in Austria and Spain on international intellectual property crime.
Before working for the CPS, in 2003 Mr Williams joined a private law company and obtained higher rights of audience in 2009, enabling him to appear in all criminal courts in England and Wales. He regularly represented defendants in the Crown Court and was involved in two cases brought before the House of Lords, one of which progressed to the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Williams graduated in molecular biology from Manchester University in 2000, before undertaking further studies and graduating in law in 2002.
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New cases (total) | 372 | 444 | 520 | 481 | 395 | 315 | 275 |
Coordination meetings (initiating and/or participating) | 82 | 77 | 96 | 64 | 64 | 79 | 71 |
Coordination centres (organising and/or participating) | 2 | - | 8 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Joint investigation teams (newly signed and/or ongoing) | 65 | 72 | 75 | 65 | 49 | 29 | 29 |
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union