Decision right, message wrong

The House of Lords’ decision to overturn the Court of Appeal ruling that the Serious Fraud Office’s decision to halt its investigation of BAE contracts with the Saudi government has further undermined Britain’s reputation in combating international corruption, lawyers believe.

In R (on the application of Corner House Research and others) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office, the House of Lords unanimously ruled that the decision of the SFO director to end the investigation was one he was entitled to make. Baroness Hale , despite expressing regret at overturning the earlier ruling of the Divisional Court, said: “it being extremely distasteful that an independent public official should feel himself obliged to give way to threats of any sort…he gave way when he was convinced that the threat of withdrawal of Saudi security was real and that the consequences would be an equally real risk to ‘British lives on British streets’.”

Stephen Baker, partner of BakerPlatt in Jersey, and a practising English barrister, says the decision adds further doubt to the UK’s ability to tackle corruption.

“The problem with the decision is that the strong perception is that where an arms manufacturer sells weapons to a government and bribes are paid it will be able to extricate itself from criminal investigation by engineering threats from the country involved.”