Member Article

Squire Sanders highlights business compliance concerns

Following the commissioning of a major survey into business compliance attitudes in leading companies in Yorkshire and the North East, the Leeds office of global legal practice Squire Sanders is calling on Government to address the very real concerns of regional businesses trading in the global marketplace.

In its White Paper: “How Global Compliance is Affecting your Business”, Squire Sanders identifies seven action points in response to key issues from CEOs, General Counsel and COOs of major businesses.

Steven Glover, Squire Sanders corporate finance partner, said: “Whilst our political leaders may look back to the days when Britain was the ‘workshop of the world’ and seek to persuade us that the thrust of policy is to encourage exports and reduce red tape, what is the reality?

“In 2010 the Labour Government introduced the Bribery Act which was brought into force by the Coalition Government in July 2011. Now that businesses have had to live with the Act for 18 months we were interested to learn about their attitude to compliance and the impact that the Act is having upon their businesses.

“If the Government is urging business to lead the UK’s economic recovery through export-led growth, it must provide clearer advice on regulatory compliance.”

In the White Paper, Squire Sanders sets out seven proposals for consideration in further reform:

1. Global compliance needs to be seen as more than a subset of maintaining reputation and brand integrity.

2. UKTI needs to more actively promote its services to small and medium sized companies.

3. Authorities need to take a more proactive approach to dealing with international companies with a UK presence that may unfairly compete with UK companies in overseas markets.

4. Improve UK rules surrounding self-reporting. The Serious Fraud Office should review its position and issue further guidance.

5. There should be clearer rules around the application of sanctions, and these should be publicised to the wider business community.

6. More companies should monitor regulatory and legal risk at board level.

7. A level playing field needs to be established for UK companies either with local competitors or other international companies because of the different attitudes to enforcement regulation.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .