Bribery and corruption

Bribery and corruption take money out of the hands of ordinary people, add to
costs, and result in poor-quality, poor-value infrastructure. They also threaten
the integrity of markets, undermine fair competition, distort resource
allocation, destroy public trust and undermine the rule of law. They are a
severe impediment to economic growth and a significant challenge for
developed, emerging and developing countries.

The Government is committed to promoting responsible corporate behaviour

amongst UK companies operating or considering operating overseas. We
expect British businesses, regardless of whether they receive UK Government
assistance or guidance, to respect local and UK laws in all their dealings. Our
embassies and high commissions provide information and guidance to UK
companies to enable them to do so. UK officials overseas are also required
to report allegations of UK involvement in foreign bribery to the Serious Fraud
Office.

A new Bribery Act received Royal Assent on 8 April, and will create a modern,
comprehensive scheme of bribery offences to replace the present complex
and outdated legislation. This will help build on the UK's good reputation. UK
companies are not immune to the challenges of overseas corruption but have
been assessed by Transparency International's 2008 Bribe Payers' Index as
less likely to pay bribes than many of their G8 competitors. The UK is also
playing a leading role in the international fight against bribery and corruption,
including work through the G20 to help China and Russia to hold their
companies to account. Despite having been criticised in the past for weak
bribery legislation, the UK has convicted a number of companies and
individuals for overseas corruption and was recently assessed by
Transparency International as one of the few active enforcers in the OECD
Working Group on Bribery. The Bribery Act is a clear signal of our
commitment to ensure that the fight against bribery and corruption supports
UK companies.
We are working to tackle international corruption and improve governance
through the G20, the OECD and the UN. We support the G20 Anti-Corruption
Action Plan, adopted by all G20 leaders in 2010, to encourage the
governments of emerging market economies to criminalise and prosecute
commercial bribery of foreign public officials by companies from those
countries. We also support the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention which
establishes legally binding standards to criminalise the bribery of foreign
public officials in international business transactions and provides for related
measures to make this effective. The OECD convention is the only
international anti-corruption instrument focused on the supply side of the
bribery transaction.

We also provide bilateral support to governments in their efforts to manage

corruption. In 2010 this included:

 working with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition to produce a

guide to whistleblowing in Ghana;
 working with the government of Kenya to improve financial
management to address corruption;
 joint-funding, with DFID, Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption
Commission which successfully indicted and convicted two high-
profile cabinet ministers on corruption charges;
 playing an instrumental role in the creation of the G20 Working
Group on Bribery which commits G20 members to supporting a
common approach towards achieving an effective global anti-
corruption regime; showing collective leadership on bribery and
corruption; and engaging directly with the private sector in
developing and implementing practices to support a clean business
environment;
 running anti-bribery seminars and round tables at a number of our
overseas posts, including Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Beirut and
Luanda, for British and local companies on the implications of the
Bribery Act; and
 providing regularly updated information to businesses on bribery
and corruption risks, via the Overseas Security Information for
Business service, which enabled companies to better inform
themselves about the risks posed by bribery in countries in which
they operate or may wish to operate.