Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I move Amendment 26 and speak to Amendments 28 and 30, which are in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. These amendments would remove paragraph (c) from Clause 12(1). It exempts the Armed Forces on active service from liability for bribery. This is an entirely new proposal. It was never put to the Joint Committee. Of course, the Joint Committee considered whether the power should be extended to the police and other similar organisations. It was never put to the Joint Committee and no evidence was presented to justify it. Why have the Government decided that the Armed Forces need the protection of the right to bribe under Clause 12? Do the Armed Forces go around bribing people in the way that bribery is defined in Clauses 1 to 6? Can we imagine any circumstances in which any member of the Armed Forces, acting in the proper exercise of their functions, is at risk of prosecution in the United Kingdom? I wait with interest the Minister’s explanation of why Clause 12(1)(c) is thought to be necessary now but was not thought to be necessary when the predecessor of the Bill was presented to the Joint Committee. The provision is entirely pointless and Clause 12 would be better without it. I await the Minister’s explanation.