overview of the Bribery Act
The Bribery Act received Royal Assent on April 8, 2010. The legislation provides a modern and comprehensive legal framework that enables courts and prosecutors to respond more effectively to bribery in the UK or abroad. The Bribery Act creates rour offences -two general omences of paying and receiving bribes, the bribery of foreign omcials and the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery The nces cover not just bribery of public omdals, but bribes offered or received in almost any business, commercial, governmental regulatory context. The offences have broad territorial scope. They apply to British nationals, UK residents and UK companiespartnerships, even if the act or omission which forms part of the offen took place outside the UK In addition, the corporate offence applies to organisations a business presence in the UK (whether or not the bribe is paid in connection with that business) A commercial organisation is lso guilty if any person associated with it commits bribery. This applies on a strict liability basis- a company is guilty unless it can ow that adequate procedures to prevent bribery had been put in place Corporate hospitality and donations could all be seen as bribes under the Bribery Act. Also, there is no exception for facilitation (grease) payments.
Bribery Offences
The BriberyAct creates four categories of offence. The first two are general bribery offences. These are set out in the form of six cases a two related to bribing another person (active bribery) a four related to being bribed (passive bribery) Two elements are common to all six cases a a financial or other advantage is offered, promised, given, requested or accepted a a function or activity is performed improperly These definitions were deliberately widely drafted and provide prosecuting authorities with considerable discretion. The third offence relates to bribing foreign public officials. This is more narrowly defined than the general offences, particularty as it indudes a business nexus' element-the improper inducement must be offered or paid in order to obtain or retain some business advantage The fourth offence is the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery A company may be guilty even ifno one within the company knew of the bribery. There is one statutory defence in this case -the commercial organisation had adequate procedures' in place to prevent such bribery from occurring.
Consequences & Obligations
The World Bank has conservatively es that more than usD trillion in bribes is paid each year However, costs associated bribery are not merely financial-social and other costs also exist he offences of bribing another person, being bribed and bribing a foreign public official are punishable by an unlimitedfine. imprisonment of up to ten years or both. The corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery is punishable by an uniimited fine. The Bribery Act has serious implications for individuals and companies alike, compared to previous legislation, it places significant obligations on firms in particular to ensure they have appropriate anti-corruption processes and procedures in place.