With just 77 days to go until the UK’s Bribery Act 2010 comes into force, it has been widely reported that Downing Street has ordered a review of the forthcoming act. The story broke in the London Evening Standard (here). The Standard has been on something of a crusade against the act for several weeks, on the back of fears of “burdensome anti-corruption systems” damaging the UK’s economic interests.
The Wall Street Journal though has a quote from an SFO offical who states that any review will be “limited” (here) and is certainly not going to result in the scrapping or changing of the entire act.
There is little detail about what this review might entail, but would echo the sentiment that the Act is definitely coming, in substantively the form it is now. The OECD Convention which the UK signed up to in 1999 requires the Act, and any changes coming out of this review are likely to affect only the adequate procedures guidance (which has not yet been published) and guidance to prosecutors.
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