Corruption Bill [HL]

My Lords, we know that the Law Commission’s range is wide. I am sure that there will be no resistance to looking at all models, from whichever place they come, in trying to get this right. We have a difficult situation, but there is, as has been said, total consensus that we need to do this and do it as speedily as we can. There is also consensus that, if we fail to do so, that will be deleterious in the long term, because there will be a lack of clarity. There is no disagreement among us about that. But the reform of our corruption law is not an easy task, as previous attempts have demonstrated. The truth is that bribery is a hard crime to pin down. It is vital that we get the reform right and that we do not inadvertently cover practices that are not and should not be criminal—an issue that was highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Condon. We therefore announced, as your Lordships will remember, on the same day as we published the summary of the responses, that we were asking the Law Commission to undertake a thorough review of our bribery laws. It has been said that there was delay, but we do not believe that that is true. If one looks at the chronology, one sees that things have moved on, and moved on beneficially. I reassure those noble Lords who have been concerned that the 2003 Bill took too narrow a scope that the terms of reference for the new review require that the Law Commission makes recommendations that continue to ensure consistency with the UK’s international obligations. It will compare our law with that in other countries and, in looking at the full range of structural options for a new bribery law, will consider the merits of an offence dealing separately with bribery of foreign public officials. I also assure my noble friend Lady Whitaker that the Law Commission will consult business as part of its review. We have also asked the Law Commission to look at the wider context on corrupt practices so that it will be clear how existing provisions complement the law on bribery. This part of the review will comprise a summary of provisions and not recommendations for reform. Referral to the Law Commission is the best course of action; the Law Commission is best placed to take forward and make a success of law reform in this field. We have asked the commission to prioritise its review and to prepare a draft Bill, so by the end of that period we shall have something to work on. In the light of that work, we will bring forward legislation as soon as we are in position to do so. Reform of our corruption laws is a difficult undertaking, but it is vital that we get it right. I sympathise with the objectives of the Bill before us today and welcome the contribution that it can make in informing our work, but I emphasise that it is not the product of the extensive consultations and reviews that are necessary and which the Government are embarked on. As I shall explain, we do not believe that this Bill establishes a workable or appropriate new corruption law. It certainly does not deliver the clarity required in a new law. Since I have only a few minutes left, I shall scan through in shorthand form some problems that will need to be looked at. I do not take issue at all with the Bill’s objectives; it is absolutely right to safeguard integrity, and so on. But, with regard to the clauses at the start of the Bill that deal with the bribery offences, the scheme for those offences is overlapping and duplicating. The formulation of the offences fails to deliver the clarity sought; a line is not easily drawn between what should be considered criminal and what should not. The proposed new corruption offence in sport is not necessary or required to tackle fixing; bribery and gambling provisions criminalise fixing sufficiently already, as I think noble Lords indicated during the debate. There are more effective means of demonstrating our commitment to tackling corruption in sport than the creation of a new criminal offence. However, I absolutely understand why the provision is there, and those are issues that we can look at. We think, too, that the proposed new statutory duty to report public sector corruption may be somewhat problematic and not entirely appropriate. There is already a duty in the Civil Service code, and similar provisions will exist for other positions. We do not believe that the offence of failing to report is justified, since we have disciplinary proceedings already, which are a more appropriate and proportionate sanction. The Law Commission concluded in its last report that the presumption was no longer justified or necessary and we sympathise with its conclusions. We are already tackling cross-border hard-core cartels that engage in bid-rigging, and we do not believe that a new foreign bid-rigging offence is the best way forward. I listened with interest to what the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, said as to how the offences worked together. There is a duty on United Kingdom companies to supervise their foreign subsidiaries. I heard what the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, said about it not doing what we think it does, but we think that, if you disaggregate the way in which it is structured, it has that intent. However, I am very glad to hear that the noble Lord does not want it to have such intent. We can see that that needs a bit of work, too. An amendment to the Serious Fraud Office remit is, we think, neither necessary nor justified. The remit covers cases involving serious or complex fraud, and major cases of bribery will normally involve that. The SFO has already demonstrated an ability to prosecute in bribery cases. That was a quick canter through the issues. We agree in principle with much in the Bill but there is a lot of detail that we would have to unpack, and I think that there is agreement in the House that we would have to work very hard on it. But I make the commitment that this is not the Government being dilatory; we understand how important the matter is and wish to ensure that it is driven through. We are very conscious of the point that the noble Lord, Lord Jay, and others made about our reputation and the need to do all that we can, as we have always done—a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen—to ensure that we are held in the highest esteem around the world. There is absolutely no difference between us on that. If at all possible, we would like to be the best.