Bribery Bill [HL]

My Lords, before I deal with the amendments as such, I join the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, in his comments on the previous amendment when he accepted that there has been full consideration of all matters in the Bill. This is really rather welcome when we think of what has been happening to a great many other Bills in the so-called wash-up that have not had the consideration they deserve. This Bill certainly has had that. The second group of amendments is obviously somewhat more contentious than the first in that it removes from the Bill the amendment to Clause 10 that was voted in by your Lordships' House on Third Reading after a very thoughtful and powerfully argued debate. Sadly, due to transport difficulties, I missed that debate—my noble friend Lady Hanham spoke in my place—but I have considered very carefully what was said by various noble Lords throughout the House then and what the Government said in another place when that clause was debated in Committee there. My honourable friends in another place were not left with much time to consider the Government's proposals before being required to agree them, but we have since reflected on the arguments put forward by the noble Lord's colleague, Claire Ward, who dealt with the Bill in another place. I note that, thankfully, the Government have not simply overturned the amendment that we put in but clearly have sat and thought about the very valid criticism that it is inappropriate to allow the state to commit bribery without any real oversight or limitation. What the Government are proposing in place of the amendments passed in this House is, therefore, obviously something a compromise. Amendment 2 takes out the specific requirement for prior consent in Clause 10, while Amendment 4, which is the key amendment, moves the focus back to the defence clause, Clause 13. That amendment places a duty on the heads of the intelligence services and the Defence Council to make arrangements that show the necessity of committing a particular act of bribery, and that act would therefore be covered by the legitimate purposes defence in Clause 13(1), thereby providing a defence to prosecution to members of the relevant services. The arrangements that have been put in place must be satisfactory to the Secretary of State—which, as the Minister has emphasised, will be an ongoing requirement. Presumably that means that any arrangements will need to be tweaked or overhauled if the Secretary of State does not feel that the result is satisfactory. I should therefore be very grateful if the Minister would give us a flavour of what those arrangements might be. We are taking quite a lot on trust if we are to accept these amendments, and we will have to rely on the various heads of the services to draw up satisfactory arrangements. We must also rely on the Secretary of State to ensure that he is not too easily satisfied with what they put forward. I should therefore also like the noble Lord to give us an indication of just what yardstick the Secretary of State would use to gauge his satisfaction. The proposal that the noble Lord has put forward is not perfect; it is a compromise. We accept that the Government have thought about the criticisms that were made at earlier stages of the Bill, particularly when it was in this House, and have come up with an approach that has some ministerial oversight built into it. We will not oppose the amendments—in fact we will accept them—but I think that it will be necessary to keep a very close eye on how this part of the Bill operates once it is up and running.