Skip to main content
Jun 26, 2012

UK Bribery Act update: one year on

Companies are reporting more FCPA investigations.

Less than 10 percent of business and legal professionals are concerned about the UK Bribery Act, according to a new Deloitte poll. Still, 24 percent of those surveyed say their anti-corruption programs have been tweaked to comply with the regulation.

The UK Bribery Act was passed in July last year and provides a framework to help firms fight bribery in the UK and internationally. But most industry analysts have seen little enforcement activity among executives.

‘While UK Bribery Act enforcement seems to be off to a slow start with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office only having prosecuted one criminal case under the act, US enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act continues at a strong pace, particularly in its focus on individual executives,’ says Lupe Gonzalez, director in the FCPA practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services.

The survey featured in Deloitte’s ‘Changing Global Anticorruption Legal Landscape’ webcast, polled over 1,200 executives across a variety of industries. About 62 percent of the respondents say the financial crisis has significantly increased corporate corruption globally but 51 percent expect an uptick in charges brought against individuals who engage in corporate wrongdoing.
           

Aarti Maharaj

Aarti is deputy editor at Corporate Secretary magazine