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Bribery Bill [HL]

I accept the noble Lord’s great experience on this point, but I am advised that with regard to offences of the kind that we are discussing, a case-specific approach would be completely impracticable. For example, for members of the Army in Afghanistan who have to take decisions quickly, out of the blue and without expecting to, in dangerous situations, there would be absolutely no way in which such prior authorisations could be given by a Secretary of State for Defence in London. That would also apply to those in the security services, who also have to take decisions of this kind sometimes. I hoped it was generally agreed that the case-specific authorisations were absurd.