(LD):...The first essential is co-operation with an
investigation. The sooner a company comes in and self-reports,
the more it has to be rewarded for. The SFO will look at what
work has already been done to investigate, how thoroughly it has
been done and how data has been dealt with—in a way that does not
tip off potential suspects leading them to delete that data
altogether. Secondly, the company must be committed to reform.
This may mean removing senior staff responsible for the
criminality and instituting changes in procedures. The SFO must
be in a position to go before a judge and argue that the default
position of a prosecution can be displaced in the specific case
and that a deferred prosecution agreement is justified. The judge
has to give his approval to this.
In the Rolls-Royce case, which is the largest of the cases so
far, the judge commented that his first reaction to what was put
before him had been that if the company was not to be prosecuted,
“in the context of such egregious criminality over decades,
involving countries around the world, making truly vast corrupt
payments and, consequently, even greater profits then it is
difficult to see that any company would be prosecuted”.
Rolls-Royce had not self-reported, but it co-operated. It was its
co-operation that enabled the SFO to take the matter before the
court. What the company did report, when tasked with it, was far
more extensive and of a different order to what may have been
exposed without the co-operation that it provided. I hope that
the committee of this House carrying out post-legislative
scrutiny of the Bribery Act, which has just been formed, will
give an opportunity to examine DPAs and how they should be used
with great care...
(Con):...I thank both noble Lords for their
contributions today and for broadly welcoming the order. I thank
the noble Lord, , for his
insights into the use of DPAs and the Rolls-Royce case,
which was indeed rather large. As he pointed out, there is now an
ad hoc committee on the Bribery Act. Obviously, it is not for us
to consider its terms of reference, but I am sure that it will
look into these things. The Government continue to support the
use of DPAs when appropriate...
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