Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, there is a further curiosity about paragraph (c) in that it is a defence only if the member of the Armed Forces is engaged in, ""an action or operation against an enemy … outside the British Islands … or the military occupation of a foreign country"." So the basic concept is that we are dealing with the Army abroad. However, it is a defence only to a relevant bribery offence that is defined as, ""an offence under section 1 which would not also be an offence under section 6"." Under Clause 6, which refers to the bribery of foreign public officials, a member of the Armed Forces would not have this defence if he went along to the head of a village in Afghanistan, shall we say, who was holding a legislative, administrative or judicial position, or exercising a public function, and sought to bribe him.