Insider Dealing on a Recognised Stock Exchange: Investigations, etc.

Part of Orders of the Day — COMPANIES BILL [Lords] – in the House of Commons at 8:45 pm on 26 February 1980.

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Photo of Mr Clinton Davis Mr Clinton Davis , Hackney Central 8:45, 26 February 1980

I agree with that. The law must be capable of being implemented, or it will be regarded as unworkable and will no longer operate as a deterrent. Is not that correct? I do not see the hon. Gentleman seeking to disagree with that conclusion.

The Government must establish that what they seek to do in this area is workable. I want it to be so. That was the purpose of our previous proposals. The Government have made them inordinately more complex. We are now dealing not simply with the offence but with the ability to detect the offence. Here the Government show a strange reticence. I do not think that they have a new-found reticence about civil liberties, but they are selective about that subject.

It is not right to appoint 1,000 new people—with the Minister for Social Security as the new virility symbol—as the scourge of the people committing the abuse, who mostly come from the bottom pile of society. They are mostly deprived and neglected people. They are mostly carrying out frauds of insubstantial amounts. They are to be dealt with and subjected to the full rigour of the criminal law. A substantial amount of public expenditure is to be committed to deal with their offences. However, when it comes to the offences that we are discussing there will be nothing.

I hope that the Minister will not say, as he did in Committee, that this is unimportant and that he can rely totally on the ability of the companies investigation branch. We are dealing with a new branch of the criminal law. The branch does not have expertise. No doubt it will acquire it. Special attention should be paid to the matter, especially in the initial stages of the implementation of the proposals, These resources must be made available to the Government. It will help to bolster the Government's credibility in seeking to implement these proposals in a sensible way.

I hope that the Government will not pursue the line that they pursued in Committee, will recognise that there is a case for the proposal, and will not show their previous selectivity of approach.