UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Neil Swift, Jasvinder Nakhwal, Charlotte Tregunna and Rachel Cook, Peters & Peters
• Participation in a fraudulent business (Section 9, Fraud Act 2006) • False statements by company directors (Section 19, Theft Act 1968) • False accounting (Section 17, Theft Act 1968) • Fraudulent trading (Section 993, Companies Act 2006) • Cheating the public revenue (common law) As set out in 1.3 Guidelines for the Interpretation and Enforcement of National Legislation , an organisation has a statutory defence if it can demonstrate that, at the time of the fraud, it had reasonable prevention procedures in place. The UK Crime and Policing Bill 2025, which is current - ly passing through Parliament, introduces proposals which would create criminal liability risk for corporate persons worldwide. 2. Bribery and Corruption Elements 2.1 Bribery Definition The BA 2010 does not provide a single definition of a “bribe”. The legislation, however, describes a bribe as involving the offering, promising, giving, request - ing or accepting of a “financial or other advantage” to induce or reward the improper performance of a relevant function or activity. This broad description is found in Sections 1, 2 and 6 of the BA 2010. The BA 2010 sets out a comprehensive range of offences relating to conduct involving the exchange of bribes. The General Offences The general offences of bribery have an extremely broad scope. They can also be committed in both public and private/commercial spheres. Section 1 – offences of bribing another person This section relates to the “active” offence of bribing someone else. The section sets out two cases where a person will be guilty of an offence, as follows.
Case 1: A person, Person A, is guilty where:
• Person A offers, promises or gives a financial or other advantage to another person, Person B; and • Person A intends the advantage to induce the improper performance of a relevant function or activity, or to reward such improper performance. It does not matter whether Person B is the same person as the person who is to perform, or has per - formed, the function or activity concerned. Case 2: A person, Person A, is guilty where: • Person A offers, promises or gives a financial or other advantage to another person, Person B; and • Person A knows or believes that accepting the advantage would itself constitute the improper performance of a relevant function or activity. In both cases, the advantage can be offered, prom - ised or given by Person A through a third party. Section 2 – offences relating to being bribed This section relates to the “passive” offence of being bribed by someone else. The section sets out four more cases (numbered sequentially following Section 1) in which a person would be guilty of an offence, as A person, Person A, is guilty where Person A requests, agrees to receive or accepts a financial or other advan - tage with the intention that, as a result, a relevant function or activity should be performed improperly (whether by Person A or another person). Case 4: A person, Person A, is guilty where: • Person A requests, agrees to receive or accepts a financial or other advantage; and follows. Case 3: • the request, agreement or acceptance itself consti - tutes the improper performance by Person A of a relevant function or activity.
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