L

Lord Carlile of Berriew (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 October 2026

Debate

Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Contribution

Before the Minister sits down, I wish to take him back to what he said in response to Amendments 18 and 20. He stated that the Attorney-General has a discretion to stop a prosecution if there is a risk of the privilege against self-incrimination being the cause of that prosecution. Will he carefully check that and write to me? My understanding is that, in national security cases, the Attorney-General has the right to stop a prosecution in the way the Minister mentioned; I would not contradict that for one moment. However, if there are cases, other than Northern Ireland Troubles cases, in which the circumstances the Minister described have occurred, I was very surprised that he did not know which cases they were or how many cases there are. He should have known that information for the purposes of this debate; he had plenty of notice of my amendments. Please can he write to me in full justifying the response he gave to me in very short summary?

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