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Bribery Act delayed six months

20 July 2010

The Government announced today that the Bribery Act will come into force in April 2011 - not October 2010 as previously expected.

It will consolidate existing bribery legislation and create a new offence of ‘failing to prevent bribery’ – aka the ‘Corporate Offence”.

The Act received Royal Assent in April 2010 and was expected to come into force in October, with official Guidance being released at approximately the same time.

However, the Government said today that it will launch a short consultation exercise in September with the resultant Guidance being published early in the New Year.

This will allow companies a couple of months to familiarise themselves with the Guidance and make sure they have adequate procedures in place prior to the Act coming into force.

Although the issuing of the Guidance has been delayed, companies should act now to consider the likely issues contained in it.

The Corporate Offence is an entirely new offence of failure by relevant commercial organisations to prevent bribery by those working on behalf of the business – including employees, agents and subsidiaries (whether domestic or foreign).

There will be a defence if a company can demonstrate it has ‘adequate procedures’ to prevent bribery. Companies should consider as early as possible what practices and policies they have in place to demonstrate their ‘adequate procedures’.

We recently reported on areas companies should be reviewing ahead of the Bribery Act being implemented.

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Linda Mattingly

Associate
T: 03700 86 8390
I: +44 (0)1908 48 8390
E: linda.mattingly@shoosmiths.co.uk