Fraud Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 11:"Page 2, line 11, leave out ““legal””" The noble Lord said: Amendments Nos. 11 and 12 relate to the commission of fraud by wrongfully failing to disclose information, which is dealt with in Clause   3 of the Bill. Clause 3 makes it an offence for a person dishonestly to fail to disclose information to another person in certain circumstances. Our amendments simply probe what is meant by ““legal duty””. Amendment No. 11 would simply leave out ““legal””, thus opening up the clause to include other duties such as a moral duty. This was a much ventilated issue, I believe, during the consultation. Amendment No. 12 adopts the original Law Commission approach and would provide a tighter, more structured definition of what the Bill means by the word ““duty””, which we hope may be of some assistance. The absence of a definition of legal duty will in our view give rise to too much uncertainty. I beg to move.