Committee says 'no persuasive evidence' on draft anti-bribery bill

Committee finds 'no persuasive evidence' security and intelligence services should be given 'special permission' not to subject to the anti-corruption laws, says the Guardian.

Ministers should scrap plans contained proposed anti-corruption legislation to give MI5 a “licence to bribe”, a committee of MPs and peers said in an interview with the Guardian.

The security service, often known as MI5, is the UK's national security intelligence agency.

The Committee said there was "no persuasive evidence" for MI5 to be given an exemption from the provisions of a draft bill tightening up the laws against bribery.

As the Guardian reveals the committee aims to scrutinise the draft anti-bribery bill, published in an attempt to produce legislation combating international corruption in 2003.

From what Guardian has understood, the bill was heavily criticised since the year it had been published. Justice Secretary Jack Straw wants the new bill to become law before general election.

The draft anti-bribery bill grants agents working for MI6 to exempt from anti-bribery laws under the Intelligence Service Act 1994, which gives the service a general licence to commit crimes abroad, though not within the UK.

MI5 would for the first time be able to get permission to bribe. This exemption, same apply to MI6, would cover acts committed anywhere in the world, the Guardian reports.

The draft anti-bribery bill, as the Guardian states, was long criticised by international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

One of its official told the committee, according to the Guardian, when it was taking evidence that he was not aware of any other country in the world where the law specifically sanctioned bribery in the way proposed by straw.

The committee said in its report: “We heard no persuasive evidence of a need for the domestic intelligence to be granted an authorisation to bribe, and neither are we persuaded that this draft bill is the appropriate vehicle to extend the security services' powers to contravene criminal law.”

Anti-corruption pressure group, Transparency International said the government should accept the committee's recommendation.

Chandu Krishnan, the group's executive director said: “The exemptions for the security services are an unnecessary provision in a bill of this nature whose primary purpose is combating bribery.”

According to the ePoliti.com, Straw now justified the proposal on the grounds that the security services were subject to “a very high degree of statutory control”, in evidence to the committee.

The bill would create two new offences of bribing and being bribed, according to the Guardian, making bribing foreign officials a specific offence.

It would also create a new offence for firms that negligently fail to prevent bribery by people working on their behalf.