The business sections of the media have been full of discussion over the last few months about the impending arrival of the UK Bribery Act. Despite this, the Act’s overall requirements are still not very clear. One of the most far-reaching expected aspects of the legislation is a new corporate criminal offence, with unlimited fines, if it can be demonstrated that an organisation had not put in place the necessary procedures to prevent bribery from taking place. As things stand, this stipulation will apply to any act of bribery committed by an employee or contractor anywhere around the world.

 

Prior to the Act becoming law, the government plans to publish a guide that, in theory, will help organisations decide what constitutes a bribe and assist them in assessing whether their existing processes and procedures are adequate. Unfortunately this has not yet appeared.

 

At the end of January, after some concerted lobbying from the business sector, the government decided that it needed more time to consult about it. Consequently, the date that the Act is due to come into effect has been deferred. It will now come into effect at least three months later than the appearance of the guide. At the time of writing, no clear indication about when the guide will appear has been given. Based on our own experience, we believe that its publication is likely by the early summer and consequently the Act is likely to be law by the time winter arrives.

 

The delay has led to some predictable confusion within companies about what they should be doing to prepare for the Act. It presents particular challenges for organisations that operate in territories where cultural differences are likely to affect employee perceptions of responsible behaviour.

 

Our advice to clients at this stage has been to put processes in place that will enable them to be fully aware of what is going on at the “coalface”. A good way of doing this is through the design and circulation of questionnaires to the relevant staff with subsequent assessment and review. On publication, it should therefore be possible to compare this information with the guidelines and design the required procedural enhancements where necessary. It will also be very important to communicate to all employees and contractors (using intranets, briefing sessions and internal publications) how relationships with third parties should be conducted and to collect evidence that this has been performed. Amongst other things, this will assist staff in trying to decide whether buying someone a glass of nice wine is acceptable behaviour or not!