The Bribery Act 2010
The Bribery Act received the Royal Assent immediately before Parliament was dissolved for the general election. It has a minor impact on money laundering law, in that a breach of the Act will almost inevitably involve a money laundering offence.
The Act also creates a new strict liability offence for businesses of failing to prevent bribery. Under section 7 a “commercial organisation” commits an offence if an "associated person", bribes another intending to obtain some advantage for the commercial organisation. The effect is that businesses can be prosecuted if their employees, agents or even joint-venture partners give bribes, even though this was done without their knowledge or approval. And even hospitality, gifts of football tickets etc may count as a bribe. It will be a defence for the business to prove that it had in place "adequate procedures" designed to prevent bribery.
The Act also codifies and updates our antiquated law on bribery. It will come into force later this year, on a date yet to be decided. Before it does, any substantial business would be well advised to create an anti-bribery policy, and to communicate it to its staff and other "associated persons".
Click here to read the Act.
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a
non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems
we recommend that professional advice be sought.
SEE ALSO
Our people
Our services
