Final Guidance Published Under The Bribery Act 2010: Full Implementation On 1 July 2011

The long wait is over. On 30 March 2011, the UK's Ministry of Justice published its final guidance (the "guidance") under the Bribery Act 2010 (the "Act") about procedures which commercial organisations can put into place to prevent bribery. On the same day, the two principal enforcement authorities, the Serious Fraud Office and the Director of Public Prosecutions, published their own guidance to prosecutors (the "prosecution guidance") on how the Act will be enforced. The Act, which has been described as the most draconian piece of anti-corruption legislation in the world, will come into force on 1 July 2011, bringing to an end over five years of legislative activity to reform UK anti-corruption law. The theory will become practice from then on.