Ellie Reeves, Andy Slaughter sworn in as Law Officers

A formal swearing-in can sound like one of those Westminster moments most of us skip past. But, according to a government statement on gov.uk, Ellie Reeves KC MP and Andy Slaughter MP have now been sworn in at the Royal Courts of Justice as the government’s Law Officers. The ceremony followed their July 2026 appointments and also saw Alex Norris MP sworn in as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. That is the headline. The bigger question is why these jobs matter, because they sit right where politics, law and public trust meet.

**Quick context:** the Law Officers are the Attorney General and the Solicitor General. They are not judges, and they are not there just for ceremony. They are ministers whose job is to advise government on the law and help make sure decisions taken in office can stand up legally. That is why a swearing-in matters. It marks the point at which these appointments are not simply political announcements but formal constitutional roles. If you have ever wondered who tells ministers when a policy risks breaking the law, this is the part of government you are looking at.

Reeves has been sworn in as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland. In simple terms, that makes her the government’s chief legal adviser. The Attorney General also attends Cabinet, which means legal advice can reach the room where the biggest political choices are made. The letters KC after Reeves’s name stand for King’s Counsel, a title given to senior barristers. It does not place her outside politics, but it does tell you this is a post where legal experience matters.

Andy Slaughter has been sworn in as Solicitor General, the minister who supports the Attorney General in carrying out this work. Together, the two Law Officers oversee a group of important departments, including the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Government Legal Department and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate. **What this means:** when people talk about prosecutions, fraud cases or the government’s own legal advice, the Law Officers are often somewhere in the background. They do not run every case by hand, but they are responsible for oversight, standards and the link between legal judgment and public accountability.

The roles also come with specific public interest powers. The government notes say the Law Officers can refer some cases to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, take action in contempt of court matters and, in some offences, give consent for a prosecution to go ahead. That may sound technical, but the public-facing version is easier to grasp: these are some of the people who step in when the justice system needs a formal legal check. So while most readers will never meet a Law Officer, their decisions can affect how serious cases move through the courts and how confidence in the system is built or lost.

In the government statement, Reeves said she wants to keep pushing for a legal profession that is open to people from every background. She also said tackling violence against women and girls will remain her top priority, building on work she began as Solicitor General. That matters because it tells you something about the political direction of the office. An Attorney General does not only answer abstract legal questions. The post can also shape which justice issues get ministerial attention, which problems are treated as urgent and how strongly government talks about fairness, safety and access to the law.

Slaughter, for his part, said his time chairing the Justice Select Committee showed him the pressure the justice system is under, and that he wants to work with Reeves to strengthen public confidence. Alex Norris, who was sworn in at the same ceremony as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, holds a different brief: he leads on the wider justice department, while the Law Officers focus on legal advice and oversight. That distinction is worth knowing because confidence is not built by titles alone. It depends on whether courts function well, whether prosecutions are handled properly and whether government follows the rules it asks everyone else to follow. So the swearing-in of Ellie Reeves, appointed on 20 July 2026, and Andy Slaughter, appointed on 21 July 2026, is more than a diary entry. It is a reminder that behind every big argument about crime, sentencing or government power, there are officials whose job is to keep law and public life tied together.