It has been said that one of the great innovations of this Bill is the introduction of the offence of reckless banking. It is not beyond our imagination to think that in 2015 the measure will be promoted on many a doorstep by people who perhaps do not fully understand what it is that is being introduced. It is one of those proposed offences that promises a great deal, but delivers very little indeed. There is nothing like it in existence in English law, and I will go on to explain why that is in a moment.
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In the House of Lords, Lord Newby said that
“we had to put in the Bill a form of words that would create a credible offence that could be successfully prosecuted. The two requirements that an individual’s conduct had to fall far below what could reasonably be expected of them and that they were aware of the risk they were taking”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 15 October 2013; Vol. 748, c. 427.]
There are many people, myself included, who believe that this is not a credible offence and that it will not be successfully prosecuted. When passing law in this place, especially potential criminal charges, we should be confident that the offence created has a reasonable chance of being prosecuted. If people are doing wrong in the City of London, we should be passing criminal offences that people are afraid of and that they believe they might be charged with. Passing legislation for the sake of gesture is a slippery slope, and we should be careful about it.