That was a veritable tour de force from the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, as one would expect. Just to deal with the issue of whistleblowers, I want noble Lords to understand that nothing in this clause would affect the rules relating to whistleblowers at all; that is key. I shall read out the speaking note on this—my goodness, I might get used to this—because it is a complicated issue; the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, himself wanted to clarify this in his own mind, so between us we might be able to muddle through and clarify both our minds.
The amendment is to Clause 33, which gives the CMA an important new power to require certain individuals to answer questions during an anti-trust investigation. The new power is similar to the current power to require a person to answer questions, which exists under Section 193(1) of the Enterprise Act 2002 in the context of criminal cartel offence investigations. The Bill will correct the anomaly that a person can be required to answer questions in criminal cartel investigations but not anti-trust investigations, including into cartels.
Such a power should be subject to safeguards, however. We have proposed provisions akin to those made in relation to cartels by Section 197 of the Enterprise Act, to provide that statements made by an
individual in response to a requirement imposed under the new section can be used in evidence against the individual or the relevant undertaking only in limited circumstances. Those are the safeguards that the amendment would remove, and I therefore hope that, on reflection, the noble Lord will see that in effect extending the power to ask questions to the anti-trust area, we also need to transpose the associated protections for individuals and undertakings.
I hope that that is as clear as daylight to the noble Lord. In the light of that, I hope that he will withdraw his amendment.