Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, will comment on Amendment 27 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Henley. It raises an issue of fundamental importance about the need, as the Constitution Committee saw it, for a prior authorisation procedure, which was the safeguard contained in the draft Bill. A prior authorisation procedure would provide much greater certainty and place responsibility where it properly belongs—with the Secretary of State and his or her senior officials. It is unacceptable that any intelligence officer should decide for themselves to carry out an act of bribery subject only to the risk of a criminal prosecution. Cases of bribery by public officials in order to achieve an intelligence or security result would—I hope we can all agree—be very rare exceptions. Any such official act should be carefully considered in advance by very senior officers of state, not least to ensure that there can be no later dispute about whether the officer was genuinely acting for official purposes. I have very good authority for the proposition that it is an important safeguard that authorisation should be given by the Secretary of State or by a senior official. The authority is the noble and learned Baroness the Attorney-General, who I am delighted to see here. Paragraph 200 of the Joint Committee report refers to her evidence in which she told the Joint Committee that the prior authorisation procedure was "an important safeguard". I respectfully agree with her.