appointed_by attorney general for england and wales
England and Wales is a legal jurisdiction covering England and Wales , two of the four countries of the ___MASK43___ , which form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England and follow a single legal system , known as English law . Her Majesty ' s Attorney General for England and Wales , usually known simply as the Attorney General , is one of the Law Officers of the Crown . Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales , the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in England and Wales . The current Attorney General is Jeremy Wright , MP . The position of Attorney General existed since at least 1243 , when records show a professional attorney was hired to represent the King ' s interests in court . The position first took on a political role in 1461 when the holder of the office was summoned to the House of Lords to advise the government there on legal matters . In 1673 the Attorney General officially became the Crown ' s advisor and representative in legal matters , although still specialising in litigation rather than advice . The beginning of the twentieth century saw a shift away from litigation and more towards legal advice . Today prosecutions are carried out by the Crown Prosecution Service and most legal advice to government departments is provided by the Government Legal Service , both under the supervision of the Attorney General . The job of the Attorney General is a demanding one , and Sir Patrick Hastings wrote while serving that `` to be a law officer is to be in hell '' . Duties include superintending the Crown Prosecution Service , the Serious Fraud Office , and other government lawyers with the authority to prosecute cases . Additionally , the Attorney General superintends the Government Legal Department ( formerly the Treasury Solicitor ' s Department ) , HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate , The Service Prosecuting Authority and the strategic body , the National Fraud Authority . The Attorney advises the government , individual government departments and individual government ministers on legal matters , answering questions in Parliament and bringing `` unduly lenient '' sentences and points of law to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales . Since the passing of the Law Officers Act 1997 duties can be delegated to the Solicitor General , and any actions are treated as if they came from the Attorney General . The ___MASK43___ of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the ___MASK43___ ( UK ) or Britain , is a sovereign country in western Europe . Lying off the north - western coast of the European mainland , it includes the island of Great Britain ( the name of which is also loosely applied to the whole country ), the north - eastern part of the island of Ireland , and many smaller islands . Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign statethe Republic of Ireland . Apart from this land border , the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , with the North Sea to its east , the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south - south - west , giving it the 12th - longest coastline in the world . The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland . With an area of , the UK is the 78th - largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th - largest in Europe . It is also the 21st - most populous country , with an estimated 65 . 1 million inhabitants . Together , this makes it the fourth most densely populated country in the European Union . Jeremy Paul Wright ( born 24 October 1972 ) is an English Conservative Party politician and the current Member of Parliament ( MP ) for the constituency of Kenilworth and Southam in Warwickshire . From 2005 to 2010 he served as MP for Rugby and Kenilworth , which constituency was abolished in boundary changes before the 2010 general ___MASK49___ . A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person , currently ___MASK80___ , as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch , but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms . As of 2017 , there are 16 Commonwealth realms : Australia , New Zealand , Canada , Jamaica , Antigua and Barbuda , Belize , Papua New Guinea , Saint Kitts and Nevis , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , Tuvalu , Barbados , Grenada , Solomon Islands , Saint Lucia , The Bahamas , and the ___MASK43___ . The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their sub - divisions ( such as Crown dependencies , provinces or states ), although the term is not only a metonym for " the State ". The Crown is a corporation sole that represents the legal embodiment of executive , legislative , and judicial governance in the monarchy of each country . These monarchies are united by the personal union of their monarch , but they are separate as states . The concept of the Crown developed first in the ___MASK21___ as a separation of the literal crown and property of the nation state from the person and personal property of the monarch . The concept spread through English and later British colonisation and is now rooted in the legal lexicon of the other 15 independent realms and the three Crown dependencies . In this context it should not be confused with any physical crown , such as those of the British royal regalia . The ___MASK21___ was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the 10th century  when it emerged from various Anglo - Saxon kingdoms  until 1707 , when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain . The Law Officers of the Crown are the chief legal advisers to the Crown , and advise and represent the central and devolved governments in the ___MASK43___ and national and sub - national governments in other Commonwealth realms . England is a country that is part of the ___MASK43___ . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight . Wales is a country that is part of the ___MASK43___ and the island of Great Britain . It is bordered by England to the east , the Irish Sea to the north and west , and the Bristol Channel to the south . It had a population in 2011 of 3 , 063 , 456 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous , with its higher peaks in the north and central areas , including Snowdon , its highest summit . The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable , maritime climate .