Bribery Bill [Lords]

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his interest in the issue and the importance of the Bill that he brought from the other place. Of course, I cannot answer on behalf of the Government. I have carried out a large part of my activity in the area since I left government. I have held many meetings with Government Ministers, however, sometimes on a one-to-one basis and other times on a cross-party basis. I have also met officials from the Home Office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the former Department of Trade and Industry, and the Law Officers. I think that they have, quite genuinely, been trying to craft legislation that will build a broad consensus among the voluntary bodies that take an interest in the issue, such as Transparency International and Corner House, and across the business community, who are the people at the front line who will have to deal with any legislation. Of course, there has also been consultation with the judiciary, the Serious Fraud Office and other parties. The process has been difficult. In 2001, fairly soon after the OECD and the EU adopted their conventions, the Government introduced provisions as part of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001which, for the first time in UK law, made trans-national bribery an offence. It had hitherto been seen as not just a legal but an acceptable and, in some cases, a tax-deductible business practice. So the Government acted relatively quickly—more quickly than those of some other OECD countries—to make trans-national bribery an offence in UK law, in pursuance of the requirements of the OECD convention. In 2003 the Government consulted more widely on a draft anti-corruption Bill, which was considered by a Joint Committee of both Houses and roundly criticised by the Committee, principally because it retained the existing agent/principal relationship to define bribery. As a result of that criticism, the Government went back to the drawing board and asked the Law Commission to study the issue not once, but twice, and consulted widely on the findings. The process has been a long one, as the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) observed and as the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield said from the Dispatch Box, but the conclusion is a Bill that is fundamentally sound and fit for purpose. We may argue about clause 13 and the exemption of the security services and the armed forces from some of the provisions—I shall say more about that—but I agree with what the Lord Chancellor and the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield said: if, in the relatively short time available, we find that we are unable to dot all the i's and cross all the t's, we must not allow that to be a reason why legislation that is extremely necessary and has been very long in coming should not receive Royal Assent before a general election. Such legislation is not at the top of the list of any Cabinet when it debates what legislation to introduce. Year after year it has been pushed back because other legislation was deemed more politically necessary and more pressing by the Government of the day. Whoever the Government are after the next election—I believe it will be a Government of the same flavour as we have now—there will be the same temptations in a first Session not to bring forward such a Bill. Let us seize the opportunity that we have now. The Bill has been through the other House. Let us get it through this House, after due scrutiny in Committee, and on to the statute book. I thank Ministers from many different Departments who have met me over the years to discuss the issue. I thank colleagues from all parties who helped to produce "The Other Side of the Coin: The UK and Corruption in Africa", a report that was produced four years ago by the Africa all-party parliamentary group. It made a series of recommendations, to which the Government responded favourably. The Prime Minister considered the report and responded at great length—15 or 20 pages. He responded positively to the group's second recommendation, which was:""Bring to Parliament before the end of 2006 a new Anti-Corruption Bill which addresses the concerns raised about the 2003 draft Bill by the Joint Parliamentary Committee and the OECD Phase Two Review."" Well, the Government have got there and I congratulate them. The Prime Minister responded by saying:""The Government remains committed to introducing a Bill in due course"," and now the Bill is here. The all-party group made some other recommendations which were more speedily implemented. One was to create an anti-corruption champion in the Government, which they did. It was initially the Secretary of State for International Development, then the post moved to the then Department of Trade and Industry. It is now where it probably should be, within the Ministry of Justice. I hope the post is retained to make sure that we get legislation on the statute book and that it is fully implemented. We also made the point that similar legislation is needed in Crown dependencies and overseas territories. We cannot legislate for that as part of the Bill, because those jurisdictions have their own legislative powers, but it is important that once we can prove that we have achieved what the OECD requires and have a new Bill on the statute book, we have further discussions with dependent territories to ensure that they, too, follow best practice. The good reputation of the United Kingdom is at stake, because they are rightly seen as dependent territories of this country.