Companies must act in an honest and ethical manner and in the UK are bound by the Bribery Act 2010 in respect to their conduct both at home and abroad. A business should have a zero tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and can adopt an anti-corruption and bribery policy to ensure that they act professionally, fairly and with integrity in all business dealings and relationships. A company's policy will outline systems for countering bribery and corruption.
A policy is important as it increases compliance with anti-bribery laws by setting out a company's responsibilities in observing and upholding its position on bribery and corruption and by providing information and guidance to workers in terms of how to recognise and deal with bribery and corruption issues.
This anti-bribery policy applies to all persons working for the company or any group company or on the company's behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, interns, agents, contractors, external consultants, third-party representatives and business partners, sponsors, or any other person associated with the company, wherever located.
The board of directors has overall responsibility for the effective operation of the anti-bribery policy and line managers have day-to-day responsibility for the policy.
In order to ensure compliance with anti-bribery laws, an anti-bribery policy should contain the following key terms:
Individuals working for your company as employees or workers must read, understand and sign your company's policy in order to prevent bribery and corruption. To create an anti-corruption and anti-bribery policy which is tailored to your company's needs simply register a Legislate account and select the agreement from the list of contracts. Moreover, you can create a company policy bundle to ensure your workers have access to other important documents such as anti-slavery policy and staff handbook.