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Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I agree. I do not want to delay more than I hope is necessary the Minister’s reply to these pressing invitations to explain what exactly has happened. Here we have this excellent procedure for scrutiny of a draft Bill, a draft Bill as put forward by a Government, who say to themselves, "Let us see what these people say about this". Well, we know what these people said about it. Paragraph 203 of the report, which has already been read out, states: ""We heard no persuasive evidence of a need for the domestic intelligence agencies … Neither are we persuaded that this draft Bill is the appropriate vehicle to extend the security services’ powers to contravene the criminal law"." Lo and behold, back come the Government, having seen what these people say about it, with an extension of these provisions. I should like to know quite what it is in the way of an urgent request for an extension of this Bill’s ambit. I should like to know what has led to this rather remarkable change of mind on the part of Ministers. Will the Minister explain, or give an example of, the extent of "law enforcement agency"? One reads at line 29 on page 8 of the Bill that "law enforcement agency" means, ""a public authority acting in pursuance of a duty of a public nature under the law of any part of the United Kingdom to prevent, detect or investigate crime"." I want to know, if the Minister will oblige me, whether that would extend, for example, to the local weights and measures inspectorate, and if it does not, why not?