Clause 183 - Investigation of offences under section 179
Enterprise Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
I support wholeheartedly the amendment that the hon. Member for Huntingdon has proposed. At the moment, I am seriously concerned that clause 183(2) as currently worded will be a licence for fishing expeditions. One always
remembers, of course, that Al Capone was caught for his tax evasion and one can imagine that some minor offence might be the basis on which the OFT goes into a company and that, once there, it will run amok. There must be proper and meaningful controls over that in the Bill, and the amendment would achieve that.