Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Bribery definition

What does Bribery mean? Bribery describes the offering, promising, giving, requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a financial or other advantage to induce or reward the improper performance of a function or to influence a person in a position of trust. In England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, bribery is principally governed by the Bribery Act 2010, which consolidated and reformed the law. It creates offences of active and passive bribery (sections 1–2), bribery of a foreign public official (section 6), and the corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by associated persons (section 7), with a statutory defence of having adequate procedures....

Facilitation payments and the UK Bribery Act 2010: active and foreign public official offences, corporate failure to prevent, and CPS/SFO prosecution policy

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Practice notes

Facilitating the performance of a duty by public officials

Facilitation payments, sometimes termed ‘grease’ or ‘facilitating’ payments, are typically modest sums made to public officials or third parties in order to secure the carrying out of their functions, either more swiftly or even to ensure it occurs at all. This may extend to the giving of ‘gifts’, such as cigarettes or alcohol. In certain jurisdictions, these payments are routine and lawful (eg permitted in some situations under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 (FCPA 1977); see Practice Note: The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 (FCPA 1977) and Bribery Act 2010 (BA 2010) comparison table).

Are facilitation payments illegal under BA 2010?

Such payments amount to the offering, promising or providing of a financial advantage and therefore constitute bribery, as the Bribery Act 2010 (BA 2010) provides no exemption.

Active bribery offences

Active bribery is expressly prohibited by BA 2010...

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Richard Furlong

Mountford Chambers

Richard Furlong was called to the bar in 1994. He was previously employed as an Investment analyst and worked in the financial services sector between 1986 and 1992. Richard has a mixed criminal and civil practice with a particular interest in fraud, corruption and money laundering, confiscation proceedings and other white collar crimes. He is regularly briefed to defend solicitors, accountants, financial advisors and other professionals. Richard is a highly regarded author of a number of publications relating to fraud and financial matters and is a current contributor to the Lexis®PSL Bribery and Corruption Toolkit. The legal directories note the following: "He's very strong internationally, is very clever and is one of those barristers who doesn't seem to sleep”, "Very knowledgeable and impressive”, “A man very much with his wits about him" and “A succinct advocate who bring his previous...

Joseph Sinclair

Joseph Sinclair is a criminal, public, and regulatory law pupil barrister at Mountford Chambers and an associate researcher for an anti-corruption charity, specialising in bribery, corruption, asset recovery, sanctions, and mutual legal assistance....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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