The new Bribery Act comes into force from 1 July with the aim of fighting business corruption. The act applies to all UK businesses, overseas businesses with some presence in the UK and UK registered businesses operating overseas.
The new piece of legislation makes paying or receiving a bribe, bribing a foreign official and failing to prevent bribery at corporate level criminal offences.
Rob Siderfin, commercial partner at Nottinghamshire firm Hopkins Solicitors says "This Act is unusual in that a business can be guilty of an offence if a rogue employee or associate commits an offence even if the management are not aware of or condoned the unlawful behaviour. Accordingly, your business could commit a criminal offence if it fails to take adequate steps to prevent bribery occurring."
He adds "However, it is a defence if you can show that you had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery. Therefore it's important to receive the appropriate guidance so you can ensure that you have appropriately addressed the issue and have created a process designed to prevent bribery."
