Bribery

Section 1 of the Bribery Act 2010 creates the offence of bribing another person and applies in two situations. "Case 1" is where a person offers, promises or gives a financial or other advantage to another, intending it to induce someone to perform a relevant function or activity improperly, or to reward them for having done so improperly. "Case 2" is where the offer, promise or gift is made knowing or believing that mere acceptance of it would itself amount to improper performance of that function. Critically, it does not matter whether the advantage goes to the same person who performs the function, or whether it is given directly or channelled through a third party — the offence is drafted broadly enough to catch indirect and disguised payments. The mirror-image offence in section 2 criminalises being bribed: requesting, agreeing to receive, or accepting a financial or other advantage in any of several circumstances (Cases 3 to 6), and for most of these it is irrelevant whether the recipient actually knew or believed the underlying conduct was improper.

Section 7 goes further and creates a strict corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery. A "relevant commercial organisation" — broadly, any UK-incorporated body or partnership carrying on business anywhere, or any other body or partnership carrying on business in any part of the UK — is guilty of an offence if a person "associated with" it bribes another with intent to obtain or retain business, or a business advantage, for the organisation. This offence does not require proof that anyone at board level knew about or authorised the bribery; the organisation is liable simply because an associated person bribed someone for its benefit. The only defence is for the organisation to prove that it had "adequate procedures" in place designed to prevent persons associated with it from bribing on its behalf, which is why anti-bribery due diligence, training and gifts-and-hospitality policies became standard corporate compliance measures after the Act came into force.