Comment
| Author | Philip Plowden |
| Published date | 01 June 1998 |
| Date | 01 June 1998 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201839806200306 |
| Subject Matter | Comment |
COMMENT
CLEAN HANDS AND A CLEAN HEART: REFORMING THE
CORRUPTION LAWS·
Q: Did Miss Mcl.eod, your secretary, have the power to turn on the
tap for any holidayfor anyone in your entourage? Why shouldyou pay
for an alderman and trade union leader to go and have a holiday at
your expense? There must be some explanation.
A: There is no explanation.
Q: It seems that Miss McLeod had the power to send people on
holiday at your expense?
A: I think she exercised some wisdom.
Q: What wisdom is required?
A: She knew they had been before.
Q: You mean anybody who was on the gravy train could go. She
knew that they were all your consultants?
A:
Yes.
2
Even before the trial and conviction of John Poulson, the Redcliffe-Maud
Committee had been appointed in response to public concerns about
corruption in local government. Its report went largely unimplemented,
while a new Commission was established with a remit to 'enquire into
standards of conduct in central and local government and other public
bodies in the United Kingdom in relation to the problems of conflict of
interest and the risk of corruption involving favourable treatment for a
public body
..
.'. Again, however, the report of the Salmon Commission
was never acted upon. Now, some 20 years later, in the wake of the Nolan
Report and an election fought in the shadow of allegations of 'sleaze' in
public life, the Law Commission's consultation paper on the reform of the
corruption laws must surely garner more attention.'
What the Law Commission seeks to do is to create a unified law of
corruption, its principles derived from the multiplicity of legislation which
currently governs the area,' but updated and streamlined so as to introduce
greater clarity and a greater likelihood of successful prosecutions. As the
Law Commission itself points out, the current law is not only unclear as
to whether the acceptance of a bribe might amount to theft (the argument
1'1 know 1 have clean hands and a clean heart
..
.'. Francis Bacon on his impeachment
as Chancellor in 1621.
2Extract from the cross-examination of John Poulson, quoted in Doig, Corruption and
Misconduct in Contemporary British Politics.
3Corruption, Consultation Paper No 45, Law Commission (available in electronic form
via http://www.gtnet.gov.ukllawcomm/homepage.htm).
4The Law Commission notes II statutes, in addition to a multiplicity of common law
offences (including bribing a coroner not to hold an inquest). The chief statutory provisions
remain the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889and the Prevention of Corruption Acts
1906 and 1916.
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