I am grateful to the Minister for his intervention, and for setting out the context and the Government’s intention behind clause 63. However, there is a difference between the intention behind the clause and how it could be used. I think it would be worth while for the Government to seek further legal advice on how the clause could be used, because legislation is not just about how Ministers intend to use powers today, but about how they could be used tomorrow. With the succession of Secretaries of State that we have had, some of whom may perhaps be—how shall I put this? Well, I shall not go any further, because I think the House understands. There are those who have been in such a position and whose judgment may be questioned a little more than that of others in this House.
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It is important that legislation be about not what is or might be intended, but what might be done by a future Secretary of State using their powers without the required accountability to this House. The wording used in the Bill is
“in the opinion of the Secretary of State”,
but there is a lack of clarity about how such an opinion might be reached. I have talked to lawyers, who note that the mechanism could be used to create an agreement with a high-risk jurisdiction. It is not specified that that must happen under future free trade agreements. I encourage the Minister to look again at whether the clause’s implementation should be tightened.
I turn to the role of the registrar. Amendment 104 would insert a fifth objective into clause 1, requiring the registrar “to act proactively”. The amendment reflects the concern expressed in evidence to the Bill Committee that the objectives in clause 1 seem
“like a ridiculously low bar.”––[Official Report, Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Public Bill Committee, 25 October 2022; c. 63, Q136.]
Our amendment would change the focus of those objectives from minimising risk to proactively seeking to identify suspect uses of the register for criminal purposes and to act accordingly. It would be a strong enabler of the risk assessment-based approaches to detecting and preventing economic crime that are set out in the important amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Simon Fell) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge), among others.