A third of UK SMEs unaware of the Bribery Act, UK government study finds

In a report into the awareness and impact of the Bribery Act among SMEs (69-page / 756KB PDF), the government said SMEs trading in "less developed" countries, such as in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South and Central America, are more aware of the Act and  (68%) than SMEs exporting to Europe, the US, Australia or other developed regions of the world (56%).

However, in total only 66% of SMEs have "either heard of the Bribery Act 2010 or were aware of its corporate liability for failure to prevent bribery", the report said. The report found that only about a quarter of SMEs (26%) that were aware of the Bribery Act are also aware of the guidance the Ministry of Justice has issued to help them comply with the requirements of the legislation.

Of the SMEs that had heard of the Bribery Act, 81% were aware that it "encompasses bribery offences committed overseas" and 72% said they believe their company has "sufficient knowledge and understanding to be able to implement adequate anti-bribery procedures", it said.

According to the report, 6% of SMEs said that employees at their business had been asked to pay a bribe. The majority of SMEs aware of the Bribery Act (89%) said the Act, however, had "had no impact at all on their ability or plans to export".

A third of UK SMEs have "assessed the risk of being asked for bribes" but 59% of respondents said their company had not made such an assessment, the government said. Bribery risk assessments are more common among SMEs who are "exporting to the less developed export regions (36%) and in particular to China (52%)", the study found.

The report also identified that fewer than half of UK SMEs have put in place "bribery prevention procedures" (42%). Measures such as bookkeeping, auditing, expenditure approvals or a strategic-level anti-bribery statement were among the procedures that have been implemented by SMEs, it said, along with written anti-bribery policies and training.

"Again, SMEs exporting to the less developed export regions (45%) and especially China (59%) were more likely to have bribery prevention procedures in place," the government said.

This report flags again that many businesses in the UK are simply not taking the steps they need to deal with corruption issues," said Barry Vitou, a bribery expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "How can they when a third of them don't even know about the Bribery Act. SMEs underestimate their enforcement risk profile and assume that they are of little or no interest to law enforcement. They could not be more wrong."