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Bribery Bill [Lords]

I congratulate the Government on bringing forward this Bill. I have spent quite a number of years jumping up and down on these Benches to argue the case for legislation such as this, and it is good to see it before the House. I am pleased that it also has the support of the Opposition. I want to begin by acknowledging the leadership given on this issue by Transparency International UK, and in particular the work done by Graham Rodmell, who worked for the organisation for a decade or so, lobbying this place and advising both me and the all-party panel on transnational bribery on the issues involved. I should also mention the leadership that the present executive director of Transparency International UK, Chandrashekhar Krishnan, has provided. Transparency International UK sent a brief to Members in advance of this debate. It states that the organisation""has been urging for a dozen years the enactment of new, effective anti-bribery legislation."" I have been working with it over that period of time, and in 1998 I introduced under the ten-minute rule an International Bribery and Corruption Bill. It sought to incorporate the then very new EU and OECD conventions against bribery into UK law.