COMMENT: Law Commission's bribery law recommendations

By Ben Schofield on Nov 20, 08 03:14 PM

Edward de la Billiere.jpg

The Law Commission today published its recommendations for the reform of the law on bribery.

Edward de la Billière, head of financial investigations and criminal fraud at national law firm Hill Dickinson, commented:

"These Law Commission recommendations for simplifying the law relating to bribery and corruption come after a prolonged period of consultation and criticism of the UK's attitude to and ability to prosecute corruption.

"The current laws are a mixture of the very old (1889: The Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act) and the very new (Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001), and they are complex and often over-lapping. Any simplification that is designed to enable us to deal more effectively with the issue is to be warmly welcomed and encouraged. It is important not just for the actual fact of investigating corruption and bribery but also for the image of the country as taking is seriously, something that has been severely damaged recently not least by the international condemnation of the BAE series of events.

"A simplified definition of what is illegal will enable British companies to conduct business, particularly at an international level, in the knowledge that they are behaving entirely within the law. It is only going to help British companies be successful.

"This comes alongside the recent seismic shift in the investigation of these offences. The SFO announced in October that it had used new powers to reach a civil settlement with Balfour Beatty over unlawful conduct "in the form of inaccurate accounting records arising from certain payment irregularities." These payment irregularities concerned a contract they won in Egypt. This appears to me to be an entirely positive way of dealing with the issue, avoiding as it does the time and cost for both parties of a prosecution, and the implementation by Balfour Beatty of certain compliance systems to ensure it doesn't happen again. Having weapons like this at its disposal enables the SFO to deploy its resources against the most serious cases of wrongdoing, whilst ensuring other unlawful activity is still punished.

"All in all, the combination of both these two events mark a modern, forward looking and practical way of dealing with the issue of bribery and corruption. At a time when the world is becoming smaller and international business is on the up, this marks an important step in facilitating UK companies to operate on an international level."