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Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am surprised that the person standing in the dock has to prove that his conduct in receiving the money was necessary for the proper exercise of any function of the security service. That seems an extremely difficult way of putting it. No doubt the Minister would like to think about the wording of that; it should be made a lot more explicit than it actually is. I had assumed throughout our discussions this afternoon that this defence was open to a member of the particular organisation referred to. If I am wrong in that, I am delighted to hear it.