Business News
Three Months’ Grace on Bribery Act
SMEs are sleeping a little easier following the three month extension of the original timescale set, before the Bribery Act and its tough new rules come into force.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) issued a policy statement last month, urging the government to be more realistic concerning the timescales given to businesses to put new processes and policies in place to comply with the legislation.
James Barbour, director of Technical Policy at ICAS, added: “A delay to at least the summer will greatly assist organisations and help the business community and government work together more harmoniously. It is the smaller and owner-managed businesses that are not as familiar with the new offence of the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery and need more time to understand how the new law fits into their business.”
However, businesses are being urged to use the three month extension and make sure it is utilised to their advantage – not to sit back and do nothing, and fall foul of the Act once it comes into force. Businesses are now expected to be making changes to eradicate bribery and corruption, and with the guidance coming forth from the Ministry of Justice as promised by Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, it is deemed there will be no excuse for not bringing the quality and efficiency of doing so up to scratch.
From the summer, businesses will need to take heed of a very specific set of offences, created by consolidating bribery laws already in place, and reform criminal law to combat bribery across both public and private sector businesses.
