Bribery Bill
Contents
Law Reform
The United Kingdom has been under pressure to reform the law on bribery and corruption since ratifying the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transaction in December 1998. This followed a year on from the UK officially signing up to the OECD Convention. When the UK ratified the convention it concluded that existing law was sufficient to implement the convention, yet a year on an OECD Working Group on Bribery found the UK lacking.
Reports indicate that a draft Bribery Bill is due to be published for pre-legislative scrutiny in the 2009 session. This bill follows the publication of the Law Commission's Reforming Bribery Report. According to the Law Commission their recommendations "will remove the outmoded distinctions between the public and private sectors. For the first time, there will be a single set of provisions capable of dealing with both sectors."[1]
Attempts
In 1998 the Law Commission published a report and draft Bill on Corruption under LC248.
This led to the Government draft Corruption Bill 2003. Under pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee the Corruption Bill received heavy criticism and it was recommended that the scheme of offences proposed be restructured.
The Government then went on to produce a consultation paper in December 2005. This revealed broad support for reform but lacked any consensus for progress to achieve it.
The Law Commission published another consultation paper in November 2007 under paper No. 185. This led to the Law Commission Final Report of November 2008 under LawCom No313 or the Reforming Bribery Report. ."[2]
Published
25th March 2009 saw Government publication of a Bribery Bill.
According to the Ministry of Justice website this Bill aims to reform criminal law, creating a comprehensive scheme of bribery offences to enable courts and prosecutors to respond effectively to bribery both abroad and in the UK. [3]
The Draft Legislation which is now in progress will make it a criminal offence to give or offer a bribe in the UK or abroad. It will increase the maximum prison term from 7 years to 10. It will also be a cirminal offence to receive bribes. The most interesting aspects of this Bill are that commercial organisations (ie companies) will be liable for failure to prevent bribery and that MPs and peers will be able to be prosecuted. [4]
There is however concern that as with Corruption Bills in the past, this legislation will fail to pass through Parliament, particularly as it has the added time constraint of being introduced a mere 15months before a General Election must be called. [5]
