How do you conduct commercial property business with your clients? Do you form alliances over a muesli and yoghurt power breakfast? Perhaps you prefer to make deals over a leisurely lunch, washing down the final details with a good bottle of red?
However you conduct your negotiations, you should be aware that the Bribery Act came into effect on 1 July. It is designed to bring the UK in line with international standards designed to prevent corruption, and those found guilty of being in breach of this act could risk up to ten years in prison and an unlimited fine. Interestingly, failing to prevent bribery is also now an offence.
The Ministry of Justice has released a guide to the act, defining bribery as ‘giving someone a financial or other advantage to encourage that person to perform their functions or activities improperly or to reward that person for having already done so’.
The law applies to British and foreign companies and individuals with commercial property operations in the UK. Any transaction carried out in another country will still fall under UK jurisdiction, meaning a defence that cites local customs and values will automatically fail.
Commercial property businesses that are prosecuted will need to demonstrate they have ‘adequate procedures’ as part of their legal defence. These include: providing anti-bribery training to staff, carrying out risk assessments on foreign commercial property markets the company operates in and checking the diligence of people being dealt with.
If you have been watching tennis at Wimbledon and are wondering whether you should have accepted that punnet of strawberries, you can relax. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said the law will be applied ‘with common sense’, advising companies that they can entertain clients at events as long as the hospitality is seen as ‘genuine’.
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