United Kingdom Corruption Report

There is a low risk of corruption in the British judicial system. Bribes and irregular payments in return for favorable judicial decisions are rare (GCR 2015-2016). Companies express strong confidence in the independence of the judiciary and are satisfied with the legal framework pertaining to settling disputes and challenging regulations (GCR 2017-2018). The judiciary is perceived as independent, accountable and open (ICS 2017). The court system is efficient, and the rule of law is well established (ICS 2017). About one in five judges believe that some judges have been appointed or promoted based on factors other than experience or merit (ENCJ 2017). Judges and prosecutors have been commended by GRECO for effectively preventing corruption, and the government is continuously implementing anti-corruption training in the form of new-material and e-learning for judges (GRECO 2015). Judges have been trained with a ‘Judicial Conduct and Ethics’ module containing in-and-out-of-court filmed scenarios and raising ethical and conduct dilemmas (GRECO 2015).

Enforcing a contract in the UK is significantly less time-consuming than elsewhere in the OECD, but the costs involved are more than double the OECD average (DB 2018). The United Kingdom is a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and is a signatory to the New York Convention 1958 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.

There is a low risk of corruption when interacting with public services in the UK. Government bureaucracy is considered burdensome but irregular payments and bribes very rarely occur when using public services (GCR 2015-2016). Businesses almost never report being asked to pay bribes to obtain business permits, licenses and other related services (European Commission, Feb. 2014). About one in five Britons believe officials issuing business permits are corrupt, but none report having been asked for a bribe (Eurobarometer 2017). The regulatory system is transparent and there are clear guidelines for business on how to act (ICS 2017). Brexit has brought uncertainty about whether the UK will follow EU regulatory standards in the coming years or will develop its own standards (ICS 2017). The government and public administration act in line with legal provisions (SGI 2017). The government has extensive control over the legislative process; they are able to alter provisions if they constitute a hindrance to the government’s policy objectives (SGI 2017). The reduction of the cost of regulation is a long-standing policy goal for UK governments; Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) have to be prepared for all legislation (SGI 2017). However, some experts contend that the results of RIAs are not systematically integrated into the decision-making process (SGI 2017).

Starting a business takes significantly less time than elsewhere in OECD countries (DB 2018). Dealing with construction permits takes about half the time of the OECD average (DB 2018).

Corruption is not an obstacle to business in the UK’s natural resources sector. No companies report being asked or expected to pay a bribe for environmental permits (European Commission, Feb. 2014). As Europe’s second-largest oil and gas producer, Britain was successfully admitted as a candidate country to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which aims to ensure the transparent publication and accountability of extractive industry revenues and expenses. The UK is perceived as a leader in international efforts to increase transparency in the extractive industries, as EITI was set-up under its leadership (EITI 2015). The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) reports that the UK has good governance controls in place in the sector (NRGI 2017). NRGI signaled, nonetheless, that the UK could further improve by disclosing more details of licensing, ownership, and environmental documentation (NRGI 2017). The UK has declared its intention to set-up a beneficial ownership registry (EITI 2017). As the first EU member state, the country has implemented Chapter 10 of the EU Accounting Directive, which stipulates that extractive companies have to disclose payments made to governments since 2015 (UKACP 2017-2022).