Bribery Bill [Lords]

The Minister will be aware that I highlighted the regulatory nature of the Bill. Clause 7 is entitled "Failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery". Earlier, I used the word "negligence", but that probably was not strictly right. It is in fact a strict liability offence tempered by a defence, the burden of which is on the defendant to show that they had adequate procedures in place. As with the Health and Safety Executive, that places a great burden on the regulator or prosecutor in deciding where the public interest lies, particularly, for example, where it might consider that the company has made real efforts to improve its performance in this area.