ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: Steven Kay KC, Richard Paton-Philip, Kabir Sondhi and Lucy Kinder, 9BR Chambers
1. Legal Framework 1.1 International Conventions
Transparency International’s 2016 analysis of the UK’s anti-corruption laws identified 22 types of corruption, only some of which were covered by UK legislation. • Bribery. • Corrupt hiring practices. • Bribes masked as commissions. • Bribes disguised as charitable donations. • Small bribes and facilitation payments.
The UK is a signatory to several international conventions that touch upon anti-bribery and anti-corruption matters. Those most directly relevant are as follows. • The OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention (ratified in 1998) (full title: Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in Interna - tional Business Transactions). • The UN Convention Against Corruption (signed in 2003 and ratified in 2006). • The Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Con - vention on Corruption (signed in 1999 and ratified in 2003). • The Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (signed and ratified in 2003). The UK is also a signatory to the Civil Law Con - vention on Corruption (signed in 2000; not yet ratified). The UK’s obligations under these con - ventions, in particular the OECD convention, were the catalyst for the revision and moderni - sation of domestic anti-bribery laws that culmi - The OECD’s Glossary of International Standards in Criminal Law (2008) points out that the OECD, Council of Europe, and UN Conventions do not give a criminal law definition of “corruption”, but instead establish “offences for a range of corrupt behaviour”. The OECD cites a general policy definition of corruption as “abuse of public or private office for personal gain” but goes on to say that “apart from this general definition, there are as many different definitions of corruption as there are manifestations of the problem itself”. nated in the Bribery Act 2010. 1.2 National Legislation
• Excessive hospitality as bribery. • Direct cash payments as bribes. • Electoral treating. • Electoral bribery. • Disproportionate favours. • Undeclared conflicts of interest. • Fraud and embezzlement. • Electoral fraud • Undue electoral influence. • Whistle-blowing. • Abuse of function. • Money laundering. • Trading in influence. • Prohibited political contributions. • Lobbying abuse.
• Cronyism and nepotism. • Revolving door abuse.
The main anti-bribery legislation is contained in the Bribery Act 2010, which applies to conduct after 1 July 2011 (when the Act came into force). Conduct that took place before that date is cov - ered by the predecessor legislation of the Pre - vention of Corruption Acts 1889 to 1916. Whilst the Bribery Act is comprehensive and covers several types of corruption, it does not extend to all types of conduct that may fall under the wider umbrella of corruption listed above. Other corrupt conduct is covered by an incomplete and piecemeal mix of statutory and common law offences, for example:
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