Since the UK Bribery Act (the Act) came into force on 1 July 2011, companies have grappled with a number of key questions arising under the Act. These questions have included the extent of cooperation required from a corporation to benefit from any credit from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and also the basis on which a company’s compliance programme might be deemed adequate in order that the company can avail itself of the “adequate procedures” defence to any charge under section 7 of the Act.
Compliance officers and in-house counsel received further guidance in the first of these areas – i.e., what steps must be taken in order to receive credit from the SFO for doing so – in summer 2019 when the SFO published its Corporate Co-Operation guidance. Illumination with regards the latter area, however, has mostly been found in the Ministry of Justice’s 2011 guidance (the MOJ Guidance) regarding such procedures as well as the limited information that can be gleaned from the handful of prosecutions and DPAs under the Act and occasional public comments from people including Lisa Osofsky (the current Director of the SFO) and Sara Lawson QC (the SFO’s General Counsel).
Continue Reading The UK Bribery Act: Adequate Procedures but Inadequate Guidance?