Under the UK’s 2001 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act, UK companies can be prosecuted for bribery and corruption committed abroad by their employees. But, in research recently published by KPMG, nearly a third (31%) of company secretaries and heads of legal departments at FTSE 350 companies admitted that they had taken no steps to communicate the significance and implications of the Act to their employees, while nearly one in five (19%) were not aware of the provisions in the Act at all.
The most frequently-given reason for not communicating the significance of the UK Act to employees was that it was ‘not relevant’ to the company’s business – even though 90% of companies said that they do business overseas.
