Practice areas:
bribery act

From initial advice to advocacy, our team possess great knowledge and experience of Bribery and Corruption litigation. The Bribery Act was one of the most important and debated acts to be passed in recent times, and at One Paper Buildings we offer knowledge and expertise when it comes to pre-charge, post charge and post-conviction advice. The aim of the act was to abolish the UK’s entire framework of anti-corruption legislation and replace it with a comprehensive law identifying the particular offences of offering a bribe, accepting a bribe or bribing a foreign public official with a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

The primary consideration for commercial clients is that the act dramatically extends the liability of a corporation and renders a corporate entity guilty if anyone acting on its behalf bribes another, or accepts a bribe from anywhere in the world. This has radically overhauled the law on corporate liability and also extended the jurisdiction covered by UK courts. There is the additional concern that confiscation proceedings may arise from any proved case. This is a key consideration for any corporate body considering their position. We are often consulted, because of our Proceeds of Crime and Asset Forfeiture knowledge, to advise on any potential liability that may arise.

Although the offence is of strict liability, there is a defence for the commercial organisation to show it had adequate procedures in place to prevent persons associated with it from committing bribery offences. We offer a Bribery Act procedure update service or ‘Bribery Act Healthcheck’  whereby we check your current procedures for compliance to ensure you have the best possible opportunity to run an ‘adequate procedure’ defence. Our (pre-charge) service includes advising on best compliance, remedial actions, whether to self-report or not, and negotiations with other parties to ensure a satisfactory conclusion.

In response to demand, we recently developed a seminar on the Bribery Act 2010 for both professional and lay clients and can offer in-house or off site training as an additional service.