Bribery and corruption

The key piece of legislation dealing with bribery and corruption is the Bribery Act 2010 (BA 2010), which came into force on 1 July 2011.

BA 2010 applies to any business that is incorporated or trades in the UK. It covers bribery committed by such a business, or on its behalf, anywhere in the world.

Offences under BA 2010

BA 2010 creates four offences:

  1. bribing another person

  2. soliciting or accepting a bribe

  3. bribing a foreign public official, and

  4. failure to prevent bribery, which can only be committed by a ‘relevant commercial organisation’ (as defined in BA 2010, s 7)

Common to each of these offences is that:

  1. an advantage is given, promised or requested, and

  2. a function or activity is performed improperly

For more information on these offences, see Practice Notes: Active bribery, passive bribery and bribing foreign public officials and Failure to prevent bribery—the offence.

Scope of liability under BA 2010

BA 2010 has a wide scope. It should be noted in particular that:

  1. the senior officers of a company (eg its directors,

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