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Corruption

My Lords, Governments are always susceptible to allegations of double standards—it goes with the business—and I am only too aware of how difficult it is for them to find themselves between a rock and a hard place in deciding on prosecutions when it may mean offending people whose friendship may matter. However, the Serious Fraud Office’s announcement that it was calling off its investigation into alleged corruption involving BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia has caused us serious concern. I declare an interest as a member of the advisory council to the World Bank Institute. For a number of years, we have been actively seeking to deal with corruption around the world and the establishment of the rule of law and human rights standards, and it has been a source of great despondency to many that this investigation has been abandoned. It would have been one thing if it had been abandoned because it was unlikely to succeed, but abandoning it in these circumstances was a source of alarm. I recently spoke to Eva Joly, the French judge who dealt with the Elf corruption case with great courage. She, too, is still working on the eradication of corruption, and feels that this decision has undermined so much of the good work that has been done in recent years. The explanations given have already been spelt out today. It was said that there was a balance to be struck between the rule of law and the wider public interest. I support what the noble Lord, Lord Skidelsky, has just said. The rule of law really is at the heart of everything. Adherence to the rule of law is fundamental if we are to talk to the world about what matters and how to prevent conflict. It was maintained that the decision was nothing to do with commercial concerns, and that it was based on diplomacy and security. Well, not much evidence has been provided to support the suggestion that it was about security. It seems that we were anxious not to offend the Saudi princes, given the mess of Iraq. Let us be clear: the problem is not really BAE Systems. Arms companies sell arms; that is what they do. They sell them around the world, and the job of politicians is to ensure that economic activity is consistent with law and morality. Jobs are important, as are good relations with other countries, but preserving them should not supersede the law. There is a long history of Governments doing business with odious Governments. Back in 1977, bribes were paid to the Shah of Iran to secure arms deals. We should have learnt that those business arrangements rarely pay dividends in security and intelligence. I accept what previous Attorneys-General have said; sometimes one can imagine the extreme circumstances in which security was of such an order that one might decide that one can not proceed with a prosecution. However, those circumstances would be rare, and there is no suggestion that that is the situation here. Such a decision gives rise to the question: who would decide that balance? The answer has been an Attorney-General. It would have to be an Attorney-General who had the public’s confidence that he was completely independent of the political processes. When my party came into government in 1997, we pledged to be different, and I feel very proud that that was our pledge. Robin Cook’s mission statement that year on 12 May, my birthday, is worth remembering. I remember it very well, because he spoke of our foreign policy having an ethical dimension. It was laughed at in some quarters, but I thought it was a proud consideration. Now it seems as though we can be pushed up against the wall by dictators and by other Governments, and we are prepared to do what it takes to stay on good terms with them. This whole episode of stopping this investigation really was a sad moment for us. The office of the Attorney-General has existed for 500 years, as others have said. The Attorney-General is a member of the legislature and the Executive, and he attends the Cabinet at the request of the Prime Minister. In recent times, however, this Attorney-General has been inclined to attend every Cabinet meeting. He is also a member of various Cabinet committees. The public’s perception is therefore that the traditional role of previous Attorneys-General has been evolving into something different. It is inthe rich mix of the Attorney-General’s diverse responsibilities, which straddle the various limbs of government, that we are becoming increasingly concerned that the checks and balances in our constitution are getting out of kilter on many fronts, and this is one of them. As a member of the legislature and the Executive, as an increasingly active participant in the Government’s tri-lateral approach to criminal justice, the Attorney-General is seen more obviously as a politician. In that capacity, he acts as any other Minister, and he is politically accountable to the Prime Minister and to Parliament as a member of the Government. Yet as the Government’s chief legal adviser, he is also called on to advise the Prime Minister and other Ministers on the legality of their actions and policy initiatives. He does so, we claim, independently, but his growing association in the public mind with daily political imperatives leads to widespread public scepticism. We have seen that in the way in which the advice was provided on the Iraq war, the current issue about the Attorney-General’s role in relation to loans for honours, and his role in relation to the investigation into BAE Systems and corruption. The public now have a different perception and different expectations, because they are much better informed. The nature of our media tells us more, so our world has moved on. Our constitutional arrangements must adjust to deal with that. It is clear that the recent development of the Attorney-General’s ministerial role has made it more difficult for the public to distinguish between his political and legal functions. In this context, the Government have already recognised the dangers inherent in multi-functional ministerial portfolios. That is why the role of the Lord Chancellor was reformed. I do not advocate that we follow the manner of the reform of the Lord Chancellor’s role, as that left a lot to be desired. However, we should now look at the role of the Attorney-General and decide whether it is suitable in the 21st century for someone who is clearly a politician to decide on matters of such legal importance. The question then arises: whose lawyer is the Attorney-General? He is not the Prime Minister’s counsel, although many of the public think he is; he is the public’s counsel. He is supposed to be protecting the public interest, and I am afraid that that has become fudged in the minds of the general public. Let us look at what we can do. The Attorney-General could return to the role that his predecessors traditionally undertook as the Government’s chief legal adviser, but with a powerful role in protecting the public interest. As one of our previous Attorneys-General said, he should be likened to a judge. He has a quasi-judicial role. In returning to that traditional position, he should cease to superintend prosecutors, such as the head of the SFO or the Director of Public Prosecutions, and should not promote the Government’s criminal justice policy or attend Cabinet, except by exceptional invitation. Those things can be done very easily. Some would say that there is a difficulty with that approach in that the process has gone too far and in the public’s mind this position is perceived to be too political. I argue that you could reform the role of the Attorney-General in a way that keeps it pure and away from contamination and the suspicion that the Attorney-General may be doing the bidding of political masters. I say that with sensitivity to the feelings of the current incumbent, but it is about the way in which our world has changed. The way in which that role is evolving makes it more political and, therefore, challengeable as to whether it is suitably independent. I, too, support the suggestion of my colleague in the law the noble Lord, Lord Lester, that this is a constitutional moment when we should look again at some of these key roles in government to see whether they can be established on a different footing. I urge that, after this debate, at some point leaders of our political parties should look at our constitution.