Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Lord Cromwell Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 8th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, I join everyone else in welcoming the Minister to his role. I also join with them in a theme that I think will emerge from everybody: support for the objectives and intentions of the Bill, but a rather more cautious view about its implementation and the resourcing of the tools to deploy it.

Unfortunately, the word SLAPPs—the use by wealthy folk from around the world, including in the UK, to deploy UK law firms to intimidate those who wish to publish information in the public interest—has regrettably become part of our parliamentary lexicon. I have repeatedly raised this urgent issue, and as have others in both Houses, so I hope it is not necessary for me to detail tonight the tactics deployed in the action of SLAPPs.

I will, however, touch on their impacts. At a personal and professional level, being on the receiving end is not just stressful; as one victim said, it takes over your life. It involves huge amounts of time, in some cases years, and bills for legal advice that are simply unaffordable. On such costs, the report ‘London Calling’ by the Foreign Policy Centre quotes a leading defamation lawyer as stating that:

“£500,000 is the ‘absolute floor’ for a full-scale libel trial, with most starting at £1 million. Even preliminary hearings, at which stage defendants might seek to get the case thrown out on meaning or jurisdictional grounds can run anywhere from £50,000-£100,000.”


At a public interest level, when people with fabulous wealth—perhaps from murky sources—can engage top London law firms to act as legal attack dogs to set on anyone going public, then who can blame a journalist or newspaper editor who decides, as many have done, simply not to investigate or publish public interest stories, no matter how well-researched or important? That is why so many stories never see the light of day.

At the level of the legal profession and the rule of law, we must recognise that many lawyers do not participate in SLAPPs. However, there is no shortage of firms willing to deliver such harassment and look the other way from the source of their client’s funds. This brings into disrepute the UK’s much-vaunted rule of law. At the level of the economy, it corrupts our financial markets. Suppressing public interest information about substantial business figures and their activities is market abuse by those who gain from it. It sits squarely in the purview of this Bill on economic crime and transparency.

Let us not get carried away. There are two problems here. First, surely everyone has a right to defend themselves before the law. If they want to spend millions on doing so, is that not their choice? The second problem is what can actually be done about this. This House is uniquely rich in legal expertise, and I can think of no better way to answer these two conundrums than to quote from the recent letter of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, to the Times, where he considered both problems and said that

“the rule of law … requires that all persons, however ‘dubious’, have access to legal advice and representation.”

I agree with him. Crucially, he then added:

“There are exceptions to this … and rightly so, in particular that we may not assist litigation which we believe to have no reasonable basis or which is being pursued to harass others.”


Again, I agree with him, but some lawyers do not follow this sound advice. They grasp instead the substantial fee opportunities available for acting as legal heavies; it is these harassment tactics that constitute a SLAPP. The noble Lord’s letter concludes that it is for judges, not lawyers, to determine the nature of such litigation. Once again, I agree.

What can be done? The answer is a vital but modest amendment to current practice to address the proliferation of SLAPPs. We need a process whereby, for example, a journalist subjected to SLAPP tactics can obtain a hearing in front of a judge far earlier than is currently available. This both reduces the time and keeps down the cost. Evidence can be presented by both sides and the judge can then rule on whether the case is vexatious or not. There are details to be resolved, such as the criteria and evidence required, but this has already been considered and clauses drafted, which I shall refer to again shortly.

Why this Bill? Well, the Government have repeatedly stated on the record from as far back as July last year that they are appraised of the issue and absolutely determined to legislate. I sat in on the debate on this Bill in the House of Commons and there was loud—I might say impatient—support from all sides of the House for the Government now to act, as I believe is also the case in this House. Instead, on Bill after Bill we hear, “Sorry, not in this Bill”, or reference to the Bill of Rights Bill, which is under fire from all sides, including from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, or even suggestions of deferring to stand-alone legislation at some future unspecified and distant date. This Bill is the right and logical opportunity to address this growing issue. If we miss this opportunity then nothing will happen in this Parliament and those reporting on economic crime will continue to be unprotected until goodness knows when.

So what to do? As has been mentioned, the Government have had many months to think about this and we have further time between now and Committee, so they have ample time to turn their publicly and repeatedly stated commitment into a government amendment to the Bill. It might help the Minister to know that professionally drafted clauses have already been prepared by lawyers and have been shared and discussed with, and improved by, highly respected Members of this House with legal expertise. I offer to share these with the Minister and the Bill team if it would assist them in producing a government amendment. I therefore ask the Minister to tell us whether he will agree to stand by the Government’s declared policy and work with us to bring forward a suitable government amendment in Committee.

In concluding, I highlight again that our free press, our legal profession, the rule of law and the proper functioning of our markets are all things that we are usually and justifiably proud of in the UK, but all four are under threat and are being damaged and dragged down by the bullying and abuse that SLAPPs embody. This Bill, which is after all dedicated to preventing economic crime and to promoting corporate transparency, is the realistic and logical place to enact a suitable amendment. I therefore look forward to the Minister’s reply and to his doing more than reading out a statement about the Government’s commitment to some unspecified future date. It is now or never to bring this vital amendment into the Bill and on to the statute book. It must be now.