UK Bribery Act 2011 - what you need to know

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The UK Bribery Act, which received Royal Assent on Thursday, 08 April 2010, has been introduced as a result of pressure to reform the law regarding bribery and corruption in the UK due to the current law’s being out of date, ineffective and not well suited to the modern global economy. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to simplify the law on bribery and to allow a more effective response to bribery offences that occur either in the UK or abroad.

The legislation is similar to its US counterpart, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), but the UK measure goes farther than the FCPA by also making it illegal to request or accept a bribe, and companies could also face prosecution for failure to prevent bribery by employees.