Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, I wonder whether the idea that nods should be outlawed is necessarily all that bad in the circumstances. In 1989, when the security services were first acknowledged, the view was taken that where the law was being breached in relation to property the Secretary of State should give an authorisation. There is not much doubt that, apart from that, the prosecutor would be informed of the situation and it would be unlikely to give rise to a prosecution. However, it was thought right as a matter of policy that the Secretary of State should be involved. Then there would be no question of prosecution at all, and the person in question would not have breached the criminal law. I wonder whether it would not be wise to think about that for this clause because there is no doubt that if the security services or the Armed Forces are in danger of breaching, for example, the provisions of Clause 1, they should be protected by a system that takes responsibility for that at an appropriate level—either through RIPA or the Secretary of State. The idea of simply blotting this out altogether is not in accordance with such thinking as there was in 1989. It was right to acknowledge that things of this kind could happen, but that the Secretary of State had to authorise them. That was the safeguard and ensured that what happened was properly in the national interest. It was not a question of leaving it to the prosecution. The question of whether there had been interference with property rights could have been addressed in 1989; Section 4 of the 1989 Act has that particular provision in it. Certainly the view taken at the time was that it was not right for the person in question to be treated as potentially a criminal, subject to the prosecution not going ahead for reasons of public policy. So far as these provisions are necessary, and that is what the Minister has been justifying to us this afternoon, it is right that they should not be offences at all. They should be taken out of that category by the relevant authority at the highest level—depending on the nature of the situation, either through the RIPA system or the Secretary of State. From what I have heard from the Minister, this is something to be justified. I am not dealing with the detail of which authorities or services should be included, but insofar as it is right to include the services, I believe that the 1989 wisdom should prevail.