Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am glad that the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, spoke first, because what I shall say is on the same line. First, I want to comment on the situation that the Minister developed in discussion of the previous amendment on the possible need for bribery. My understanding of the law of confidentiality, as it is also part of employment law, is that confidentiality does not protect someone in respect of crime. In other words, if someone who is bound by the obligation of confidentiality reports a crime, that is not a breach of the confidentiality requirement. Therefore, the Minister's description or analysis is more likely to apply to a case where information is being sought without any real knowledge of whether or not a crime has been committed by someone who is employing a person to whom the advantage is given. It is that situation, against the definition used in the Bill, which could give rise to a question of bribery. A little more than 20 years ago, I was given the responsibility of introducing the Security Services Bill to the House of Lords, which acknowledged the security services for the first time. Among its provisions, as your Lordships know, was the provision about interfering with property rights, which, I suppose, was at least part of the motivation for the Bill. The authorisation procedure was introduced for that purpose. I suggest to the Minister that if there is any risk of a crime being committed on behalf of the agencies—if that is likely or possible—the best protection for the rule of law is a prior authorisation either under RIPA, for cases that are sufficiently ordinary, or by the Secretary of State. I would hope that the occasions on which such a thing would be allowed would be very few indeed, so it would be right for it to be the Secretary of State, on the whole—as noble Lords know, there are exceptions when the Secretary of State is not available. But certainly in relation to the security services, the authorisation should be at the level of the Secretary of State, in accordance with the general provisions of the Security Services Act. In any case, if there is a real risk of bribery being committed within the definition of Clause 1 or the other clauses, that should be subject to prior authorisation at the appropriate level.