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Bribery Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, for indicating that, but my understanding of the situation is that, in regard to bribery, the act of scrutiny does not take place now. Obviously it should do. I do not know whether the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, has knowledge of whether there is any form of scrutiny at the present time. Certainly, if there is a form of scrutiny, that is beneficial. However, the form of scrutiny that my amendment, supported by other noble Lords, recommends to the House is one that will end up in an annual report to the House. When it comes to bribery on behalf of the state, the rule of law requires no less than that there should at least be regular reports to the House about what is happening on the state's behalf in relation to bribery. Resorting to bribery is a very corrosive exercise, and if it is going to be resorted to, we need care and protection of the sort that I have indicated. I ask the noble Lord, Lord Bach, if he does not feel that he can accept the amendment, to tell the House why it is not practical from the point of view of the services to which it refers. It requires the Secretary of State to determine what guidance should be given on the nature of the scrutiny. The Secretary of State can certainly consult and be guided by the services in drawing up the guidance. It does require, however, that the guidance should in its turn require that a record, so far as is practicable without impeding the proper exercise of the functions referred to in Clause 13, be made before the act of bribery is carried out; to state when and by whom it was carried out and to give such particulars as are sufficient to identify the act of bribery. I should like to endorse what the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, has said about the difficulty of the person who is to be the subject of an offence. The new clause gives that person the right to make a request and to receive a copy of the record which relates to him, "““unless the Secretary of State considers that such disclosure would be contrary to the public interest, in which event such disclosure shall only take place if the trial judge directs that it should occur””," thus taking advantage of the well known procedure of the trial judge being put in the position of having to safeguard the public interest. I provided the noble Lord, Lord Bach, with a copy of the amendment. I am sorry that he has not had the time to consider it but I would like him to have done so because of the timescale to which we have been working. I suggest, however, that it was difficult to see why this is not a method of providing some realistic protection both to the state and to those who have to engage in the nefarious world where bribery is required to be carried out in circumstances where no offence will be committed.