Bribery Bill [Lords]

I apologise to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and to the House for not having been here at the start of the debate. I was held up with some constituents. I start by applauding British exporters for the tremendous work that they do around the world. There are many men and women who have set themselves up in business and who help with our balance of payments deficit by finding new markets overseas and navigating difficult red tape and bureaucracy in doing so. I spent 10 years of my life exporting British goods abroad, and I enjoyed it greatly. Unfortunately, we are not exporting as much as we should be, and we have a huge trade deficit, as all Members are aware. My favourite expression in politics is that business is the workhorse that pulls the social welfare cart, and I am always slightly concerned about more legislation interfering with people's ability to do their job. I say unequivocally at the outset that I am very much anti-bribery and applaud the cross-party consensus that bribery is wrong. It frustrated me greatly in my career exporting to Africa, and I am pleased that we are taking action. However, I will be concerned if we are gold-plating the Bill and moving further and quicker than some of our European partners or other countries, to which I shall come a little later. We are not a nation populated by people who bribe. I disagree very much with the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth), who says that the only reason why we are legislating is that the OECD is twisting our arm. In my experience of exporting to Africa and the middle east, I always found my fellow British business people and other British companies to be arguably the least likely to bribe. It is inherent in the nature of the British character to play fair and play by the Queensbury rules. That may sound rather old-fashioned, but it is the truth. We tend to behave appropriately overseas in our financial transactions, and I cannot say that about all the other foreign people whom I have come across when I have been competing against them in Africa and the middle east. In the course of my 10 years, I never even considered giving a bribe, and I never knew anybody else in my company who did. However, I did come across aspects of bribery by the French, Germans and Italians. I am being told that those countries have since tightened their regulations, but have they? Will the Minister say how much the courts and Ministers in those countries are actually implementing those new regulations? I hope she can enlighten me on that and that she is working closely with the European Union to ensure that basic standards are applied throughout the EU. I reiterate that I simply do not want British firms to suffer as a result of the Bill. We have been told that we are not allowed to talk too much about BAE Systems, so I will not, except to say that as chairman of the all-party Saudi Arabia group, I am extremely concerned at how the media sometimes tend to blow up out of all proportion various delicate issues that are intrinsic to our country without referring to anything specific. I hope that the media act more responsibly when reporting matters such as bribery, because such reports do tremendous damage to our relations with countries such as Saudi Arabia. I feel passionately about exports to the Gulf states. I have spoken on many occasions with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia about how to increase our exports to that country. He has informed me that the £5 billion-worth that we currently export is negligible in comparison with our European competitors. He is desperate for Britain to diversify trade with his country away from purely military components, and to increase bilateral trade. I am therefore a little bit worried. I have come here today to seek an assurance from the Minister that the Bill will not hamper British businesses that try to export. I make no apologies for saying that British businesses are charged a great deal of money for using British embassies. British companies that want to use the British embassy in Riyadh are charged—I believe—more than £3,000, yet many of their competitors do not have to pay that to use their country's embassies. There are not enough resources such as commercial attachés in our embassies to help our businesses to export. I spoke just this week with the Leader of the Opposition about the importance of a future Conservative Government, should we be elected, having a trade delegate—a representative of the Prime Minister—to the middle east. The hon. Member for City of York (Hugh Bayley) said that he very much hopes that China will join the OECD, and that countries such as China and other developing nations will be bound by the new regulations and aspirations on bribery and the conduct of businesses and Governments. I hope the Minister and the Government discuss with China the possibility of it joining the OECD and do everything possible to encourage and help it to do so, because it is imperative that the Chinese behaviour in Africa is stopped. I will never forget meeting the dictator of Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir, to talk to him about human rights abuses in Darfur and Sudan. Everywhere we went, there were all sorts of Chinese constructions. China was pouring massive amounts of money into Sudan to monopolise the market. While we are acting responsibly as a nation and refusing to trade with Sudan as long as those human rights atrocities are carried out, China basically monopolises the market to secure Sudanese oil, making it almost impossible for British businesses to secure business in the country. That is important. Lastly, I reiterate what I said at the beginning of my speech on Government snooping. A lot of business people in my constituency say, "Look, the only reason we're still here in Shropshire is that we feel passionately about our county. We're thinking with our hearts rather than our minds, but if we were thinking with our minds, we would've shut up shop a long time ago and set up business in China, India or some other place where we do not face such huge levels of red tape, bureaucracy, interference and form filling." I hope the Bill is not yet another example of more Government red tape and interference. There must be sufficient evidence before the appropriate body interferes and initiates cases against businesses. I hope the Government are cognisant that British business is already desperately struggling to compete internationally in this very competitive globalised world. I do not want the Bill to hamstring them even more.