Third Reading

Part of Bribery Bill [HL] – in the House of Lords at 4:15 pm on 8 February 2010.

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Photo of Lord Bach Lord Bach Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice 4:15, 8 February 2010

The noble Lord asked me that question before, and I still do not have the answer-but I suspect that there have been very few prosecutions, if any. Even after this Bill has passed, if it is passed in its present form, we do not expect to have very many cases of this kind to report. That is part of my argument. We believe that with the Clause 13 defence the vast majority of cases will not end up in court, because the member of the Armed Forces or the intelligence services who is suspected will have available the defence in Clause 13. That is something that the police and the prosecutor will know.