The Bribery Act 2010 – Its Provisions And Implications

OUTLINE

1. The UK's new Bribery Act has been long in the making. After much debate and speculation, sometimes informed and sometimes not, it is to come into force later this summer, namely on 1 July 2011. It represents a determined assault on corrupt practices, taking an approach which is more severe and extensive in its reach than comparable legislation elsewhere, including even the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

2. That much is apparent from the terms of the new Act which, briefly expressed: _ give clearer statutory definition to the general offences of bribery;

• Create the new offence of bribing a foreign public official;
• Create the new offence of failure, on the part only of commercial organizations, to prevent bribery;