Bribery and corruption
32.Part 12 brings in provisions to strengthen the law on international corruption. The sections put beyond doubt that the law of bribery applies to acts involving officials of foreign public bodies, Ministers, MPs and judges; and to ‘agents’ (within the meaning of the 1906 Act) of foreign ‘principals’. They give courts jurisdiction over crimes of bribery committed by UK nationals and UK incorporated bodies overseas. There is also a technical provision, to ensure that the existing presumption of corruption in the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916, which it is intended to abolish, does not apply any more widely as a result of these new provisions.
