Ministry of Justice: Guidance about procedures which relevant commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing

March 30, 2011

The Ministry of Justice has published guidance about procedures which relevant commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing.

The guidance is designed to be of general application and is formulated around six guiding principles, each followed by commentary and examples.

The guidance is not prescriptive and is not a one-size-fits-all document. The question of whether an organisation had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery in the context of a particular prosecution is a matter that can only be resolved by the courts taking into account the particular facts and circumstances of the case.

The onus will remain on the organisation, in any case where it seeks to rely on the defence, to prove that it had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery. However, departures from the suggested procedures contained within the guidance will not of itself give rise to a presumption that an organisation does not have adequate procedures.