My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General for bringing this matter before us so swiftly following the decision of the director of the Serious Fraud Office. However, I protest that the public interest in the prosecution of international corruption is of the highest order and, if we permit international corruption to continue in any way, or seem in any way to be giving a go-ahead to a large British industry, however much that may be in the economic interests of this country, we are damaging international relations in the broadest sense. Companies such as BAE Systems are in competition with foreign firms. If we get into a situation in which corruption is permitted or allowed to continue, there will be competition about the size of the bribes that can be offered internationally. In the broadest sense, that cannot be in the interests of this country.

The noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General said that any serious damage to UK/Saudi security, intelligence and diplomatic co-operation would have seriously negative consequences for the United Kingdom public interest. But how can that not be forbidden by Article 5 of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which says that you cannot take into account the potential effect on relations with another state? The two statements are contradictory.

I appreciate that the director of the Serious Fraud Office has taken this decision, but I assume that the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General conveyed the views of the Prime Minister and the Foreign and Defence Secretaries to the director of the Serious Fraud Office. Again, that is no doubt permitted to an Attorney-General, but it puts enormous pressure on the director to take the decision that she has taken.

I respectfully suggest that the decision is premature. This is not the moment to decide whether the prosecutions would succeed or fail. A further 18 months of investigations, having regard to the amounts of money allegedly involved, is not a huge amount of time in this sort of investigation in criminal law, with which I am familiar to a degree. I appreciate the speed of the Statement, but we on these Benches must protest at the decision and the way in which it has been made.