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Corruption

My Lords, we near the end, and we look forward in due course to hearing the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General take up this opportunity to show the accountability to Parliament of his office. I start by offering my congratulations and thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, on introducing this debate and for securing so many learned and important speakers. I offer my thanks particularly to my noble and learned friends Lord Lyell of Markyate and Lord Mayhew, both former holders of the office of Attorney-General. I hope that the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General will be grateful for the contributions that they have made. I offer my commiserations to the noble and learned Lord for having to respond to this debate. He will accept that there have been contributions from a large number of noble Lords who have experience of ministerial life and of the difficult decisions that have to be made and then brought before Parliament. There have been a whole host of other speakers, all of whom have brought their experience. Three former Chief Whips from this place and another place have spoken; but we have not heard much about their dark arts. He has also had to listen to some seven senior members of the Bar. I hope that he will look forward to answering all the points that have been put to him in the debate. There are one or two points that I want to make fairly briefly from the Dispatch Box on behalf of the Opposition. First, I go back to the Statement that the Attorney-General made on 14 December, to which my noble friend Lord Kingsland responded and my honourable friend the shadow Attorney-General responded in another place. I make it clear, as we made it clear then, that on the basis of the comments that the Attorney-General made about the highly speculative nature of the inquiry and that any final prosecution was unlikely, the decision to discontinue the investigation, in view of the potential damage to our national security, was inevitable and was the only sensible course of action. Having said that, there is a very clear need for the Government to provide greater guidance on the operation of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 in terms of its impact on payment to individuals abroad, particularly since BAE Systems and its executives have always—it is important to remember this—denied any wrongdoing. Thirdly, as Parliament has enacted law criminalising the bribery of foreign officials, that law must be enforced wherever such crime occurs wherever possible. I now turn to the role of the Attorney-General. We make it clear from this side of the House that, unlike the Liberal Democrats, we wish to see the Attorney-General in Parliament and accountable to Parliament. I would be very grateful if the noble and learned Lord could tell us what the Government’s attitude to this question is. I look at today’s Guardian, and I see an article about Ms Harriet Harman, Member of another place, entitled, ““Harman breaks ministerial ranks over loss of public trust in attorney general””. It goes on to say that she, and possibly the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor, would like to see the Attorney-General’s role changed. Having seen that headline, one feels a faint whiff of rats leaving sinking ships. I would be grateful if the noble and learned Lord could confirm that he and the Department for Constitutional Affairs—which I now see represented on the Benches opposite—have no particular desire to change the role of the Attorney-General, and will leave him in this House or in another place. The Attorney-General is now in this House rather than the House of Commons, as was his predecessor, the much lamented Lord Williams of Mostyn. I remember Lord Williams of Mostyn taking up his role as Attorney-General in this House. He reminded us that he was the first Attorney-General in this House for 400 years. Certainly, in this House we thought it was a great honour to be represented by having the Attorney-General here. It might be a mistake; it is possibly a reflection on the lack of necessarily legally qualified Members in the other place of the party opposite. Many would agree that if the Attorney-General is to be in Parliament, as we think is right and proper, it would be better that the Attorney-General was in another place—in the Commons, in the House where all the action is. I move on to one or two other points about the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General and how he has exercised his functions. The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, referred to the fact that he was attending Cabinet on a very regular basis, whereas I have been advised by my noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew that in the past the Attorney-General attended only by invitation and where necessary. I wonder whether he could address that fact and whether it is necessarily desirable for him to be there the whole time, or whether it might be better to revert to the old system. Again, this might be a reflection of the fact that the Cabinet has much less function than it used to have and is of considerably less importance. Certainly, many of us would feel happier were the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General to be attending Cabinet only as and when asked to, rather than attending on a regular basis. As we have made clear, the Attorney-General should be in Parliament. The idea that he could be taken out of Parliament puts into question the whole idea that he can make a rational, objective and impartial decision while he is a politician. We make it clear that we believe that politicians, whether lawyers or otherwise, can make rational, objective and impartial decisions, just as I am sure the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, did when she was Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection or Secretary of State for Education in the 1970s. We see no reason why it should not be proper for the Attorney-General to be in exactly the same position, making what I describe as rational, objective and impartial decisions in his role as Attorney-General. The noble and learned Lord has had a large number of questions put to him from all sides of the House. He now has 20 minutes, or possibly more if he wishes to take it, to answer them. He is, as we have made clear, still accountable to Parliament. If the Liberal Democrats got their way, this debate would not be taking place. All of us look forward to hearing the noble and learned Lord respond to those points, and we await that response with interest.