Your Chamber is hosting a roundtable discussion on March 31^st in Leeds with the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to discuss the implications of the Bribery Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.

In advance of the proposed changes to the Bill becoming law, the Government intends to publish guidance on this defence. The guidance is being prepared with the input of a number of business and NGO stakeholders and to aid its development further, we are keen to draw on the experience and expertise of businesses from a broad range of businesses. This is a real opportunity to influence how this Bill will affect your business.

By way of background, the Bribery Bill will transform and simplify the law on bribery by replacing the existing old and fragmented legislative and common law offences with a single modern statutory framework. The Bill includes two general offences relating to the giving and receiving of bribes, a discrete offence of bribery of a foreign public official, and an offence of failure on the part of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery.  On the latter offence, an organisation will be able to defend itself against a charge of bribery if it can demonstrate that it has put in place adequate anti-bribery procedures.

The discussion will last no more than three hours and we are looking for a variety of businesses with mixed interests from within the SME sector. This bill will have particular relevance to companies who trade internationally or who employ overseas agents to work on their behalf. If you are interested in attending pleased email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it