Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, with these amendments the noble Lord, Lord Henley, seeks to retain the requirement to obtain the prior consent of the Attorney-General before commencing proceedings for the new statutory bribery offences. He is right: there was considerable strength in the arguments put on this side at Second Reading, but I know that he will be the first to agree that there was also considerable strength in the arguments put on the other side. This is one of those issues where there seems to be a genuine difference of opinion and it is rightly debated today. My ears pricked up and I sat up to listen when the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, started to say that there were accusations against the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, in this field. It may be that the noble Earl has a crystal ball that the rest of us do not have and that one day—