Prior to the Bribery Act 2010 being introduced, bribery was recorded within UK legislation as a common law offence. The introduction of the Act and its application from 1 July 2011 onwards has formalised the law around bribery and made it clearer to businesses what constitutes an offence and what they should be doing to address the risk of bribery within their organisations.
International enforcement agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office are collaborating on cross border cases, increasing the chance of detection of bribery and successful prosecution. Companies should review their existing procedures, processes, controls, governance and culture, their risk profile and anti-bribery programmes.
