§ 35. Mr. SkinnerTo ask the Attorney-General if he has any plans to widen the remit of the Serious Fraud Office.
§ The Attorney-GeneralI welcome the hon. Gentleman back to my Questions; I thought that I must have hurt his feelings last time. The statutory remit of the Serious Fraud Office is to investigate and prosecute suspected offences involving serious complex fraud. I do not consider any revision necessary.
§ Mr. SkinnerThe reason why we have not been in combat is that the Table Office has not been placing my questions high enough on the Order Paper.
Will the Attorney-General have a look at the questions that have arisen over what has been revealed during the past two weeks about the right hon. Member for Worcester (Mr. Walker), who was chairman of the Maxwell Communication Corporation for two months 652 and picked up £300,000 in shares, a £100,000 handshake and a Mercedes for a quid? Given the call for others to tighten their belts, should not the matter be investigated? Will the Attorney-General look into it?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI shall assume in the hon. Gentleman's favour, but without much confidence, that he gave my right hon. Friend the Member for Worcester notice of that question.
If any conduct by anyone in the country—no matter who that person is—is thought to give rise to the possibility of a criminal offence, it is the duty of whoever makes such an assertion to report that conduct to the police. It is not a matter for the Serious Fraud Office. If the hon. Gentleman thinks that he has got something, he should report it to the police. If he has not got anything, I hope that he will not raise the matter again in the House of Commons, where privilege operates.