Member Article

Lawyers advise local businesses on Bribery Act

Businesses in the region need to learn how to protect themselves against bribery, according to a North East law firm.

Crutes, who have offices in Newcastle, Teesside and Carlisle, have organised a series of seminars to inform local companies what the provisions of the Bribery Act 2010 could mean for them.

The Act, which came into force in July of this year, brings together the four crimes of bribing, receiving a bribe, bribing a foreign public official and failing to prevent bribery.

Rod Searl, a partner at Crutes commented: “The one that concerns most businesses is failing to prevent bribery and under the new Act an organisation is criminally responsible for a bribe made on their behalf, whether they know about it or not.

“However, businesses will have a full defence for this particular offence, and can avoid prosecution, if they can show they had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.”

The seminar will provide an overview of the act, as well as information on best practice procedures to prevent bribery being carried out on their behalf.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .