Compensation Bill [HL]

I am afraid that on this occasion I am not satisfied with the Minister’s arguments. The principle that ignorance of the law is no defence is well established and it applies in scores of cases where businesses—we are talking about businesses here and not individuals—may be convicted of breaches of the law which they did not know about. Where someone sought advice, whether from the regulator or from an independent barrister or someone of that kind, and that advice was wrong and something that he believed on the basis of advice he trusted turned out to be untrue, then, if that was clearly the case, it would be very unlikely that a prosecution would be brought at all. If a prosecution was brought and the court was satisfied that there was no intent, no negligence and no failure to make proper inquiries about the law, then the court might give a conditional, or possibly even an absolute, discharge and a defendant who had an excuse of that kind would not suffer. However, I am concerned that, certainly as the Bill now stands and even with amendments, this is a potential loophole that could lead, first, to cases taking longer to decide and, secondly, to people who were not innocent being let off. In those circumstances, I still think that it would be much better to get rid of this subsection. I do not think that the precedent from the Financial Services and Markets Act is very much to the point because it talks about people who use due diligence. Here, in the great majority of cases one is looking at people who have not used due diligence and that is why they are in trouble. It is no good to say ““I didn’t know”” if you have not used due diligence. This is a matter that I take seriously. I do not think that anyone who ends up in court because they were given the wrong advice will suffer a serious problem because the court will recognise that when considering the appropriate sentence. In those circumstances, although I am obviously bound to withdraw the amendment today, it could well be one that we will wish to bring back on Report. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.