Bribery Act 2010 and E Ltd: Symposium, Hospitality, and Legal Risks

This report examines the legal implications of bribery, particularly concerning corporate hospitality and its potential impact on E Ltd's symposium. It delves into the definition of bribery, referencing the Bribery Act 2010 in the UK, and explores the circumstances under which lavish hospitality could be construed as bribery. The report analyzes the potential criminal liability of E Ltd if it were to organize a symposium similar to a past event, considering the intent behind providing hospitality and its proportionality. Furthermore, it outlines the steps E Ltd must take to prevent future allegations of bribery, including implementing anti-corruption training, establishing clear policies on gifts and entertainment, conducting due diligence, and maintaining transparent communication channels. The conclusion emphasizes that while hospitality is a common business practice, it must be offered in good faith and without the intent of gaining an unfair financial advantage. The report underscores the importance of proactive measures to mitigate bribery risks and ensure compliance with the law.

Board Room
Presentation

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
If E Ltd were to arrange the symposium similar to that organized before the pandemic by H Ltd,
whether E Ltd be criminally liable for bribery.........................................................................................3
What steps E Ltd must consider taking as an organization to prevent any possible future allegations of
bribery.....................................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The bribery can be defined as giving, offering soliciting or receiving any item which has
the value in order to influence actions of official or some other person who is in charge of the
public or the legal duty. Bribery is basically corrupt solicitation, transfer or acceptance of the
value in exchange for the official action. It is the unethical as well as illegal gift or the lobbying
effort which is bestowed in order to influence the conduct of recipient. It may be goods, money,
property, rights in action, emolument, advantage, and other actions. It is the corrupt or the
criminal activity wherein an entity offers something of the value to the public official or
corporate in the exchange of cooperation in influencing the process of decision making (Hock,
2019). This report shall cover the whether providing lavish corporate hospitality amounts to
bribery and what steps can company take in order to avoid allegation of bribery.
MAIN BODY
If E Ltd were to arrange the symposium similar to that organized before the pandemic by H Ltd,
whether E Ltd be criminally liable for bribery.
The Bribery Act in UK was passed in the year 2010 in order to address the perceived lack
of the commitment to the anti- bribery law and to enhance the coordination among various
investigative bodies that has been tasked to address such issues. There are mainly four types of
offences under the Bribery Act, 2010 which includes the following-
 Promising, offering or giving bribe to other person (Section 1).
 Agreeing, requesting to accept or receive the bribe from other person (Section 2).
 Giving bribe to the foreign public official (Section 6)
 The corporate offence of failing to avoid bribery (Section 7) (Grasso, 2017).
Hospitality, expenses and gifts are vulnerable to be used for the offence of bribery. These
may be used as bribes but they pave also ways for bribery by entrapping the person. These
may be used to maintain and build the relationships during the bribery scheme. Providing
hospitality gifts and the travel expenses are considered as high areas of risk for bribery. The
companies are subject to trouble in order to manage the laws which do not define any
boundaries for the hospitality and gifts.

When there is the bona fide promotional and hospitality or the other expenditure of
business which mainly seeks to make improvement in the image of commercial organization, it
is important to present the goods or services or to establish the cordial relations is mainly
recognized as the way of doing business and is not intention under the law to criminalize such
behavior. The government under the legislation has no intention to prohibit the proportionate and
reasonable promotional and hospitality or the business expenditure of similar nature that are
intended for these aim. But however, it is clear that these actions may be employed as bribe.
In order to make the act as bribe under Section 6 of Bribery Act, there should be the
intention for the financial or any other advantage in order to influence in the official role and
thereby securing the business advantage. It is seen that the lavish the hospitality is being
provided or the higher the expenditure, there is greater inference that it might be intended to
influence granting of the business or any business (Silverman, Lee and Lydecker, 2020).
The legislature do recognize corporate hospitality or gifts as important aspect of business
and Serious Fraud Office has extended the guidance on the hospitality and gift in order to include
legitimate business expenditure. Under section 1 of the Act, the intention to induce the improper
conduct is the test of whether gift or hospitality amounts to bribery. So these must be made in
good faith and shall not be considered as legitimate if the intention behind it to advantage
individual that is making an offer. Another test is the principle of proportionality wherein the
hospitality or gift can be construed as bribe where it is proportionate to the scale, nature and
complexity of business activity of company.
So E Ltd shall not be held liable for the offence of bribery if it offers the lavish
hospitality in good faith and not to take any financial advantage.
What steps E Ltd must consider taking as an organization to prevent any possible future
allegations of bribery.
In order to prevent the future allegation of bribery when providing lavish hospitality
service to people, the company must-
 Have the legitimate purpose of business.
 Be proportionate which means that must be reasonable and not lavish unduly.
 Be transparent by declaring it in the gift and hospitality register of the organization.

E Ltd can also take the following measures in order to prevent the allegation of bribery-
 Providing the training to employees for anti- corruption.
 Establishing the policies on the corporate gifts, charitable giving, travel entertainment
and lobbying.
 Undertaking the anti- corruption due diligence on every strategic transaction.
 Building and maintaining clear communication channel to report the concerns in
confidence (Hauser, 2019).
 To take the appropriate disciplinary remedial action or measures that arises from the
unethical behaviour.
However, there is no one size fit for all approach in order to comply with Bribery Act. Every
organization who does business in UK must determine the current system, policies, control and
training programs to be complied with new Bribery law and failure to act in accordance with it
can result in facing violations, thereby leading to penalties.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that the bribery is the criminal offence in UK wherein any
individual or company is found in conducting such act can be penalized and imprisoned. It is the
big concern that whether providing gifts and hospitality amounts to bribery. So the law does not
criminalize the gift and hospitality as criminal offence of bribery however, it must be provided or
offered I good faith and without any financial or business advantage. The companies can take
some measures to prevent it such as to develop policies relating to hospitality and gifts,
providing anti-corruption training, etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Grasso, C., 2017. The dark side of power: corruption and bribery within the energy industry.
In Research Handbook on EU Energy Law and Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Hauser, C., 2019. Fighting against corruption: does anti-corruption training make any
difference?. Journal of Business Ethics. 159(1). pp.281-299.
Hock, B., 2019. Extraterritoriality and international bribery: a collective action perspective.
Routledge.
Silverman, M., Lee, P.R. and Lydecker, M., 2020. 5. BRIBERY AND OTHER STRATEGIES.
In Prescriptions for Death (pp. 119-130). University of California Press.