Camden Solicitors

Business still not ready for the Bribery Act ?

As many of you will know, the Bribery Act has already been delayed once by a number of months  and been watered down. Whilst the Act may be primarily aimed at big business and business with an international presence, it is still important for all businesses to know about it and take proportionate steps to prevent bribery and corruption. Aside from the very heavy fines which can result from breach, business owners can be sent to prison and this is not based on being involved in possible bribery but simply for failing to prevent it.

A recent poll by respected information providers Thomson Reuters suggests that up to 40% of businesses are still unprepared. The Act will come into force on 1^st July, so time to do something is running short.

One of the main things the Bribery Act requires is proper due diligence checks on suppliers or customers or unusual or high value transactions. There are now lots of investigative companies as well as business solicitors who will provide such as service and a good employment law or commercial law solicitor can also enure you have a suitable anti-bribery and corruption policy, so help is out there and available.

Trading standards and austerity cuts

Consumers ought to be aware that Trading Standards are unlikely to be able to offer quite the same level of investigative service in the near future as the trading standards budget is the latest victim of the swingeing cuts to funding by the Government. Consumers will consequently need to be even more wary of who they buy goods and services from.

It seems that the budget for Trading Standards is to be reduced  £247 million to £140 million across the 200 plus trading standards services offered. As with a number of the proposed cuts, including the budget for legal aid, opponents claim that these will be a false economy when considering the bigger picture of the country’s overall economic health and success. In terms of Trading standards, the national audit Office suggest that unfair and hard sell tactics may result in overall losses to the UK economy of over £6.5 billion per annum. If this is correct, maybe the opponents of the cuts do have a valid point ?