I wonder whether I could give a concrete example from my experience of a few years ago. I think it was police officers, but it may have been officers of the security services, who paid £20,000 to a lorry driver for information relating to millions of pounds’ worth of heroin that he was carrying on his lorry. Is that in any sense to be regarded as a criminal act on the part of the person who paid? To me, it is inconceivable. Secondly, do policemen go around worrying about paying over money to informers and asking themselves whether they are committing a criminal offence? It has been done for centuries. In this Bill, we are not suddenly criminalising some absolutely day-to-day activity of the police in paying for information. Are we?
Bribery Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Thomas of Gresford
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 13 January 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee proceeding on Bribery Bill [HL].
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
716 c91GC 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-04-22 02:04:43 +0100
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