Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am well aware that the noble Lords, Lord Thomas of Gresford and Lord Goodhart, take the view that we do not need the clause at all. That will still be tested because the question of whether Clause 12 should stand part has not yet been reached. I understand that. I will concentrate on the key point in Amendment 22—that is, how we define, if we so decide, the extent to which the defence is available to the intelligence services. In the draft Bill, the definition was much tighter than what we have now for two reasons. First, there was an authorisation. Secondly, you cannot find in the draft Bill the phrase "any function". It is not there at all. In the draft Bill it depends on what is authorised by the Secretary of State. That is relatively restrictive. In the text that we now have, it is relatively unrestrictive—if the word exists in English. It is almost challenging to say "any function". It means that whatever you come across is covered by the defence. That has, of course, been challenged by the Constitution Committee. I think it is a mistake to extend it so widely. Like other noble Lords, I would like to hear what the Minister has to say about ministerial authorisation, and whether he would be prepared to think again about the reference to "any function". There are various ways in which that could be corrected; some were mentioned in the Constitution Committee report and some in the amendments before us. As it stands, before any of these amendments are decided, the definition is extraordinarily wide and we need to query whether that is justified.