Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Dominic Grieve

Tuesday 8th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure that offences against bribery laws are prosecuted successfully.

[The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve)]

The CPS is the principal prosecutor of domestic bribery, and the Serious Fraud Office has lead responsibility for enforcing the provisions of the Bribery Act 2010 in respect of overseas corruption. I hold regular meetings with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the director of the SFO to discuss issues affecting their respective organisations. I am satisfied that both organisations are well positioned to enforce bribery laws, as is well illustrated by the major investigations into cases of suspected foreign bribery that the SFO has commenced.

[Nic Dakin]

If the SFO wants to investigate a major bribery case, it has to go cap in hand to the Treasury to beg for funds. What steps is the Attorney-General taking to ensure that the SFO is not just independent, but seen to be completely independent?

[The Attorney-General]

I do not think that the SFO does have to go cap in hand to the Treasury. The SFO can go to the Treasury for special funding. The difficulty has always been that some cases require a lot of funds, and if they are not being inquired into, the SFO is probably receiving more money in any given year than it needs. I accept that this is an issue, and the hon. Gentleman is right to raise it, but I am satisfied that the SFO has not been prevented by financing from investigating any cases it wishes. That is a good starting point.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Dominic Grieve

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

Much depends on the outcome of the reform package that we might be able to implement. There are a number of things that need to be done. First, a very large number of those cases among the total of 165,000 are non-admissible. It is a question of processing them so that the individuals concerned can be told that their cases cannot be heard and the reasons for that. When it comes to the admissible caseload, the issue for the future—clearly, we have to clear the backlog—centres on subsidiarity and the extent to which the Court relies on national courts which are correctly implementing the convention to provide the solutions. This is one of the challenges, and in doing that we also have to recognise that for many countries the right of individual petition is very important.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

2. What discussions he has had with the director of the Serious Fraud Office on the potential benefits of introducing corporate deferred prosecution agreements.

[The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve)]

I have had a number of discussions with the director of the Serious Fraud Office about the potential benefits of introducing corporate deferred prosecution agreements. A great deal of very positive progress on this ongoing work has occurred in the past few months among the Law Officers Department and also the Ministry of Justice.

[Nic Dakin]

Will the Government’s proposals apply to individuals as well as to corporate bodies?

[The Attorney-General]

Deferred prosecution arrangements can apply only in the case of corporate bodies.