User:Sunnydayeveryday

The Bribery Bill

The Bribery Bill is a prospective piece of UK legislation. At the date of writing (9 June 2009) it is making its way through the UK Parliamentary process, on its way to becoming a UK law. The Bribery Bill is the UK's respoense to criticism of lack of action on the part of the UK to combat international bribery, and to comply with the OECD.

The new Bill proposes criminal offences covering; • A general offence covering the offer, promise or giving of a bribe (active bribery). • A general offence covering the requesting, agreeing to receive or acceptance of a bribe (passive bribery). • A discrete offence of bribing a foreign public official. • A discrete corporate offence based on a failure to prevent bribery by persons acting on behalf of a corporate body.

According to the UK's Ministry of Justice, the bill will: •	provide a more effective legal framework to combat bribery in the public or private sectors •	provide clearer compliance with international obligations •	replace the fragmented and complex offences under common law and the Prevention of Corruption Acts 1889-1916 •	simplify legislation covering two general offences: offering, promising or giving of an advantage, and requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting an advantage •	create a discrete offence of bribery of a foreign public official •	create an offence of negligent failure by commercial organisations to prevent bribery •	support high ethical standards in UK businesses •	tackle the threat that bribery poses to economic progress and development around the world.

Bribery is currently criminalised under common law and the Prevention of Corruption Acts 1889-1916, so the new offences are really a clarification and reformulation of existing laws. Even the new discrete offence of bribing a foreign public official is again a reformulation of the existing law. (The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 Act put beyond doubt that the existing law applied to the bribery of a foreign public official, whether by an individual or by a corporate body and provided jurisdiction to prosecute acts committed abroad by UK nationals or UK registered companies.) The full bill can be found here here.

The bill started life as

The Bill has started is march into the statute books and the two Houses of Parliament have established a Joint Committee on the draft Bill. The remit of the Committee is to consider the draft Bill and report on it by 21 July 2009. This committee stage of the legislation proceeds by a series of hearings with oral and written evidence, and discussion. Its Parliamentary journey can be tracked here.

On 20 November 2008, the UK’s Law Commission published its final report ‘Reforming Bribery.’ The report contains recommendation to repeal the common law offence of bribery, and get rid of a number of related statutory provisions. These offences will be replaced by two general offences of bribery, and with one specific offence of bribing a foreign public official. In addition, there will be a new corporate offence of negligently failing to prevent bribery by an employee or agent. The mainstay of the proposed new act comprises two general offences. The first is concerned with the conduct of the payer or giver of an advantage to induce someone to behave improperly. The second offence is concerned with the recipient, who also commits a crime when he or she requests or accepts such an advantage either in exchange for acting improperly, or where the request/acceptance is itself improper. Both offences extend the law to foreign nationals who reside in the UK and conduct their business there. The new offence is that of bribing a foreign public official (‘FPO’) where the intention is to influence that official in his or her capacity as an FPO in the obtaining or retaining of business advantages. Finally, there will be a new corporate offence of negligently failing to prevent bribes being given or offered by an employee or agent of a company or limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales. It will be a defence to this crime that the company had adequate systems in place to prevent bribery. Directors or equivalent officers of a company that contravenes any of these offences may find themselves held criminally liable as individuals. These new offences will apply to conduct anywhere in the world by a UK national, resident or company and will attract a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment for individuals and a n unlimited fine for companies.