Law Commission Recommends Corruption Crackdown
Employers who fail to clamp down on bribery would face jail under proposals for an overhaul of "out-dated" laws.Plans from the Law Commission published on Thursday would also make companies liable to prosecution for corruption in their activities overseas.
Bribing a foreign public official would also become a new offence if reforms are implemented by the government.
Professor Jeremy Horder, the commissioner leading the project, said: "The government has been striving to find a solution to the problem with the law of bribery for some time.
"We believe we have found a workable and fair solution that will bring the law up to date.
"Our recommendations will make the law fit for purpose at a time when a great deal of trade takes place in a global market.
"It has never been more important for the modern law to deter people from acting on the temptation to resort to bribery to secure business, both nationally and internationally."
The changes would help authorities pursue prosecution in cases such as the abandoned corruption inquiry into the defence deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.
The report explained how it would become an offence for corporate bodies to negligently fail to prevent bribery by an employee or agent.
It would be a defence to this crime that the company had adequate systems in place to prevent bribery, the commission recommended.
A spokesman for the commission added: "At the heart of the proposals is the replacement of the patchwork of offences with two general offences of bribery - one concerned with giving bribes and one concerned with taking them.
"The British legal system has struggled with the definition of bribery for centuries.
"At present there are several overlapping, but distinct, corruption offences set out in three Acts dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as an even older common law offence of bribery.
"As a result, the current law is complex, fragmented and out of date."
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