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Thursday, 18 Oct 2012

Ethics

Guidance on the Bribery Act 2010

The Bribery Act came into force on 1 July 2011. The Act created:

  • new offence of failure by a commercial organisation to prevent a bribe being paid for or on its behalf (it will be a defence if the organisation has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery);

  • create two general offences covering the offering, promising or giving of an advantage, and requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting of an advantage;

  • create a discrete offence of bribery of a foreign public official.

The Ministry of Justice has published guidance on the Bribery Act. The intention of the guidance is to provide commercial organisations with the information they need to put in place measures 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. The SFO Chief Investigator also released a letter about facilitation payments which are illegal under the Act.

Defence Industry work on Ethics

UKTI DSO supports defence industry work on ethics and transparency in exports, through work of its Defence Advisory Group.

The AeroSpace, Defence and Security (A|D|S) defence trade association continue to promote the European defence industry anti-corruption Common Industry Standards. These include a Statement of adherence for companies to sign and a Toolkit to assist them interpret the CIS, and guide them in business dealings. They also endorse the Global Principles on Business Ethics, which focus on zero tolerance of corruption. These are being promoted by the International Forum on Business Ethical Conduct (IFBEC), which is widely engaged in outreach work.

More information

Companies are strongly advised to view the Overseas Business Risk and associated pages, on the UKTI website. They include Bribery and Corruption and other background sources.

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