Britain has taken a step towards shaking off its global reputation for being soft on corruption

<p>Britain has taken a step towards shaking off its global reputation for being soft on corruption with the release of long-awaited guidelines on bribery and graft.<br />The Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) Bribery Act is designed to speak with a single clear voice, drawing disparate strands of law together in one bill that will dictate if a company is breaking the law.<br /><br />But how distinct is the message? How determined is Britain to clamp down on bribery, whether by UK firms or by foreign corporates with listings in London?<br /><br />And what should you do if a partner of your company operating in a murky foreign land acts unethically?<br /><br />First, let's look at what is right about the legislation. The new act is clear and lucid in many ways and a huge step up from previous measures, which were seen as weaker than similar bills in America and Germany and prone to manipulation.<br /><br />It deals with the tricky issue of corporate hospitality with 'great common sense,' according to Matthew Kelly, an expert in white-collar crime at US law firm Skadden Arps.<br /><br />Thus a small dinner to discuss a trade deal will be deemed a natural step in the process of doing business by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which investigates cases of complex fraud.<br /><br />But if your company wins a lucrative deal to build aeroplanes for the Chinese or power plants in Nigeria after taking a large party of company officials heli-skiing in Alaska, expect a knock on the door.<br /><br />The same goes for the process of so-called facilitation payments (often called 'speed' or 'grease' payments) routinely paid to public officials to smooth the process of routine and necessary transactions.<br /><br />These remain illegal, as they were in previous bills. But the SFO is set to pursue charges of facilitation payment in a pragmatic and unobstructive manner that takes into account, one London lawyer notes, the 'difficulty of doing business in many foreign countries'.<br /><br />Critics of the new measures - and there are many - have pounced on the fuzzier areas. Interpretation is the act's biggest failing.<br /><br />If a British-based company is accused of offering illegal inducements, it is deemed fair game by both the MoJ and the SFO.<br /><br />But both public institutions appear to differ in whether to pursue corporations that may have a London listing but little tangible UK presence.</p>

Britain has taken a step towards shaking off its global reputation for being soft on corruption

Britain has taken a step towards shaking off its global reputation for being soft on corruption with the release of long-awaited guidelines ...

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