Draft Bribery Bill re-introduced to Parliament…

The Bribery Bill has been re-introduced to Parliament following the examination of the initial Bribery Bill, which had been originally put before Parliament in March. The Bribery Bill aims to modernise and consolidate the UK’s bribery and corruption laws. There would be offences of bribing and being bribed and also bribing a foreign public official. Of significant interest is a corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery. The corporate offence had initially required the need to prove negligence on the part of the company, but that has been changed to a strict liability offence. The Government has decided that requiring the prosecution to prove negligence would be too complex. Therefore, if the Bill is passed in its current form, a commercial organisation would now be guilty of failing to prevent bribery where a person associated with it bribes someone, intending to obtain or retain business, or to obtain or retain an advantage in the conduct of business, for the organisation. However, the organisation would still have a defence to the strict liability offence if it is able to prove that it had adequate procedures in place to prevent the offending conduct. The Bill currently leaves it unclear what those procedures are.

The bribery seeks to encourage self-reporting. However, one of the consequences of a corruption conviction would be that the convicted organisation would be automatically and perpetually prohibited from competing for public contracts under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006. Other consequences of breaching the new law would be large fines for individuals and the business concerned.

One grey area remains corporate hospitality. The Government does not intend that the new law should penalise legitimate and proportionate use of corporate hospitality to establish or maintain good corporate relations. But where should the line be drawn?