Victoria tweaks informant reform to calm Lawyer X fears

Laws to reform Victoria Police's use and management of informants will be tweaked but still won't completely outlaw lawyers covertly informing on their clients.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes on Wednesday confirmed the Victorian government has drafted amendments to its controversial Human Source Management Bill.

The changes would raise the threshold for the police chief commissioner to use a lawyer as an informant following a royal commission into the Lawyer X scandal, she said.

"It is my view, as well as the royal commission's view, that lawyers shouldn't be used as human sources except in the most exceptional and rarest of circumstances," Ms Symes told reporters.

The police commissioner would have to be satisfied there is an imminent risk to a person's or community safety and convinced there are no alternative sources, Ms Symes added.

She cited examples such as murder or threats to national security.

Another amendment flagged would require the police commissioner to seek permission from the Supreme Court to register a lawyer as a human source, if those thresholds are met.

The bill acts on 25 recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants after it investigated Victoria Police's handling of former gangland lawyer-turned-police informant Nicola Gobbo.

But the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Bar have previously suggested it will legitimise the use of lawyers as police informants.

Ms Symes said the changes allayed concerns of former justice Margaret McMurdo, who oversaw the royal commission, when she met with her on Monday.

"This isn't about the police going to recruit lawyers to snitch on their clients," she said.

"This is going to be in the most extreme circumstances, where legally privileged information may be of use to prevent something terrible from happening. I expect that it will be very rarely used, if ever."

Shadow attorney-general Michael O'Brien said the draft amendments did not deal with the key issue of lawyers still being able to inform on their own client.

"Lawyer X can and will happen all over again if Labor's amendments are accepted by the upper house," he said.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said the party was seeking further clarification on the changes, along with greater checks and balances and concerns about potential child informants.

Legalise Cannabis MP David Ettershank said the government was yet to resolve a range of its outstanding issues with the bill, and the party would consult stakeholders on the changes before offering any support.

"We have pushed very hard on the question of having a Supreme Court justice deciding on questions of the appropriateness of lawyers to become informants. That is very much a work in progress," he said.

Debate on the bill is expected to resume in the Legislative Council on Thursday.