UK: Bribery Act 2010 – in force on 1 July 2011

The Act repeals the existing legislation relating to bribery and creates four new offences:

• A new 'corporate' offence which applies where a corporate or partnership fails to prevent those performing services on their behalf from paying bribes. The only defence to this offence is to show that an organisation had in place "adequate procedures" to prevent such bribery. The Ministry of Justice has published guidance on what amounts to "adequate procedures" for this purpose.
• An offence of active bribery (i.e. giving, promising or offering a bribe), which applies in the public or private sector.
• An offence of passive bribery (i.e. requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a bribe), which applies in the public or private sector.
• A specific offence of bribing a foreign public official.

The Serious Fraud Office and Director of Public Prosecutions have published joint prosecution guidance on the Act. It contains guidance for prosecutors on when to commence prosecutions under the Act and lists factors which will be relevant when a prosecutor is considering whether bringing an action is in the public interest.

For further details on the Act, see the anti-corruption e-bulletin which our corporate crime and investigations team published last year which is available here.

For further details of the MoJ guidance and the SFO guidance, please see our anti-corruption e-bulletin published in March which is available here.