Finally, the Government has announced that the Bribery Act 2010 will come into force on 1 July 2011. The new Act replaces, updates and extends the existing UK law against bribery and corruption.

Your business may need to have procedures in place to prevent acts of bribery, but only if following an assessment, there is a risk that an agent, subsidiary or other person performing services for your business might carry out such acts.

The Act provides:

• a general offence of bribery, which is defined as giving someone a financial or other advantage to induce them to perform their functions or activities improperly, or to reward them for having already done so.
• an offence of bribing a foreign public official in order to win business, keep business or gain a business advantage for the organisation.
• an offence relating to failure by a business to prevent a person associated with it from committing the above offences on its behalf in order to win business, keep business or gain a business advantage for the organisation.

You will be able to avoid a conviction for the last of these offences if your business has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery on your behalf.

In order to protect themselves and ensure they will remain compliant, business owners should:

• assess whether their business is at risk and, if so, the level of that risk.
• put in place procedures proportionate to the risk that is identified, the scope and size of their business, and the countries in which they do business.
• show their clear commitment to the prevention of bribery.
• use due diligence to assess who they are dealing with and who they appoint to represent them.
• communicate, train and raise awareness among employees and business partners.
• monitor and review their procedures.

Under the new Act companies will still be able to continue doing the following:

• providing genuine business hospitality.
• carrying out proportionate and reasonable promotional activities.

All businesses should now familiarise themselves with the statutory guidance and begin to assess the risk of bribery occurring in their business. The extent of any further action will be dependent on the results of this risk assessment.