Anti-corruption initiatives remain a priority for government

Fri 01 Apr 2016

The Global Anti-Corruption Summit, an initiative of the Prime Minister, is scheduled to take place in London in May 2016.

There are a number of civil society and government initiatives taking place in the build up to the summit and, building upon the momentum created by the summit, the UK Anti-Corruption plan is likely to receive a fillip in the summer.

On 22 March I was privileged to provide evidence to an All Party Parliamentary Group on Corruption (APPG) inquiry. This standing, cross-party committee is committed to tackling the scourge of corruption and is a member of a global network of like-minded parliamentarians.

This particular inquiry is examining how the UK government can help exporters expand into higher corruption-risk environments. The APPG will consider the verbal evidence given on 22 March along with written submissions from an earlier consultation process, hopefully, to help steer government export policy.

The points I raised related to the adoption of a new International Standard in bribery risk management (ISO 37001), the need for SMEs to be able to access cost effective anti-bribery due diligence and the need for a facility to allow UK businesses to share information on when and where bribe demands occur.

On the same day, the parliamentary International Development Committee received verbal evidence into its own inquiry relating to the direction and effectiveness of DFID’s current anti-corruption efforts, the development impacts of UK Government policy on corruption and the coherence of the Government’s approach to the problem.

May will be a busy month on the anti-corruption front. Once again I shall head the UK delegation to the International Standards Organisation who will meet for a final time, this time in Mexico, to debate the final draft of the new ISO in bribery risk management. Subject to ISO member votes the new standard, ISO 37001, should be published in the fourth quarter of 2016 after three years of hard work by some 40 countries.

Continue to follow this blog for regular updates on these and other anti-corruption developments.