Bribery Bill [HL]

It was absolutely and completely scandalous and should have been clamped down on much, much harder and much sooner; I suspect that with the will there would have been the evidence to do so. He was eventually convicted and rightly sentenced to a very long term of imprisonment. At the end, my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay brought out the links with extortion and demanding with menaces. That is probably a legitimate defence to some aspects of this kind of so-called facilitation payment and might provide a genuine example. The noble Lord, Lord Williamson, has told us privately of some really terrible examples of the kind of demands that can be made in utterly corrupt circumstances where ship owners and stevedores and so on are completely placed over a barrel. I, as much as anyone else, want to see that stamped out. I intend to withdraw the amendment at this stage but I remain anxious because we are not in a world where this matter is treated in the same way. As I said, the Americans put in the elaborate facilitation payment scheme, which one would like to know more about, and I hope that before we get to Report the Minister will be able to be even better informed than he is at the moment. We are in a world where other common law jurisdictions are using precisely, or very nearly, the language that I am suggesting we should stick with. However, we have had a valuable debate and for the time being I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 1 withdrawn. Amendment 2 not moved. Clause 1 agreed. Clause 2 : Offences relating to being bribed Clause 2 : Offences relating to being bribed Amendments 3 and 4 not moved. Clause 2 agreed. Clauses 3 to 5 agreed. Clause 6 : Bribery of foreign public officials Amendment 5 Clause 6 : Bribery of foreign public officials Amendment 5 Moved by