Bribery and Corruption

Bribery is illegal and has no place in British business, at home or abroad. It is an offence for UK nationals and bodies incorporated under UK law to bribe anywhere in the world.

From 01 July 2011 the Bribery Act makes it an offence for commercial organisations carrying on a business in the UK to fail to prevent bribery on their behalf by employees and other associated persons.

UK enforcement is increasing, with a number of UK nationals and companies recently fined or imprisoned for their involvement in overseas corruption.

Overseas corruption also hurts honest companies and raises the costs of doing business. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of UK companies have lost business to a bribing competitor or turned down overseas opportunities due to overseas corruption.

So, what can Overseas Business Risk do for me?

We can give you practical advice and tools to manage the risks of overseas corruption in an increasingly complex global marketplace.

• The Overseas Business Risk country pages include up-to-date information on bribery and corruption in over 90 markets.

• Information on the Bribery Act 2010 is set out below and more is available on the Ministry of Justice website

• You can gain further advice and help on managing the risks of overseas corruption from UK Overseas Posts.

Bribery Act 2010

The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 01 July 2011 and, following extensive consultation with business, has published the Bribery Act guidance. The intention of the guidance is to provide commercial organisations with the information they need to put in place to prevent bribery on their behalf. Alongside the full guidance, there is also a quick start guide which it is hoped will be particularly useful to SMEs.

The Director of the Serious Fraud Office and the Director of Public Prosecutions have published guidance on their approach to prosecutorial decision-making in respect of offences under the Act. During the consultation period, there was particular interest in a number of areas:

• Hospitality and Promotional Expenditure - The Bribery Act does not prohibit hospitality, and the Ministry of Justice guidance confirms that hospitality is allowed as long as it is reasonable and proportionate. The independent prosecution authority guidance confirms that excessively lavish hospitality is an important consideration in the decision on whether to prosecute. Other public interest factors include whether the hospitality was not clearly connected with a legitimate business activity, or was concealed..

• Facilitation payments – UK law has never provided an exemption for facilitation payments (small bribes to secure routine government action). The Bribery Act does not change that position. We believe they also undermine corporate anti-bribery procedures and confuse the anti-bribery message to employees and business partners. The Ministry of Justice guidance makes clear that payments specifically permitted or required under local law are not bribes (e.g. as part of a transparent fast-track scheme for business visas). The Ministry of Justice guidance also makes clear that, where payments are made in response to immediate threats to life or limb, the general common law defence of duress may be available. Furthermore, the independent prosecution authority guidance makes clear that they will have regard to the public interest in prosecution of facilitation payments particularly where they are paid, for example, where the payer was in a vulnerable position because of the circumstances where the payment was demanded (e.g. demands by armed militia at roadblocks). View guidance on facilitation payments from the Serious Fraud Office and to read more on facilitation payments, please visit the SFO website.

Further resources

The UN has recently launched a new initiative called Tools and Resources for Anti-Corruption Knowledge (TRACK). This includes a legal library containing laws, jurisprudence and other information on anti-corruption authorities from over 175 States worldwide, indexed and searchable according to each provision of the UN Convention Against Convention (e.g. official embezzlement, prohibitions against bribery, procurement, etc).

A list of further key resources and initiatives to counter bribery and corruption are available from the website of the Department of Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS).

BIS also sponsors the international business anti-corruption portal, a free guidance website designed for small and medium enterprises, which includes tools to help you manage the risks of overseas corruption. This includes more than 60 country profiles giving general information on each country plus specific data on corruption in different parts of society, for example the police or the judicial system. This overview helps you gauge the occurrence and type(s) of corruption companies may face in these countries.

Transparency International (TI) is a world’s leading non-governmental anti-corruption organisation. TI website provides a number of country rankings in the area of corruption and bribery (e.g. Corruption Perceptions Index, Bribe Payers Index and Global Corruption Barometer), as well as a variety of anti-corruption resources.

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You can also call the UKTI enquiry line: +44 (0)20 7215 5000 or contact your local trade team and talk with one of UKTI’s country specialists. Or you can gain country specific information on our Overseas Business Risk country pages.