UK announces funding for overseas anti-corruption measures

The funding includes £2.6 million for the International Budget Partnership, an organisation which reports on the transparency of government budgets; and £2m for the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions Development Initiative (IDI), which works to strengthen global governments' independent audit functions. The UK is also urging international trading partners to join it in tackling global corruption, in particular by committing to transparency over company ownership.

The new initiatives were announced by Penny Mordaunt, the UK government's international development secretary, and its anti-corruption champion John Penrose, ahead of this week's International Anti-Corruption Conference in Copenhagen. More than 1,000 participants from 100 countries were expected to attend the conference, which was intended as a follow-up to the UK's 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit.

"Dealing with endemic corruption in developing nations is vital for our national security and in creating trading partners for the future," said Mordaunt. "It is a win for the developing world and a win for the UK."

Corporate crime expert Tom Stocker of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the commitments would "send a signal that the UK intends to remain at the forefront of the fight against corruption and is prepared to put its hand in its pocket to help others do the same".

"Whether, and how, this translates into actual action, and change, remains to be seen but with much of the work aimed at supporting the emerging, and higher risk, markets British businesses may well hope to enter, particularly post-Brexit, the UK government is clearly keen to do something to help them tackle corruption," he said.

"With government focus naturally on the UK's withdrawal from the EU there has been concern in some quarters that the fight against corruption has slipped off their radar. The prospect of having to concentrate trade efforts in higher risk regions too has fuelled those fires, citing the inevitably increasing vulnerability of British businesses as they try to find new markets," he said.

The UK government published an in-depth anti-corruption strategy late last year, setting out the six priorities that it will use to guide its efforts to tackle domestic and overseas corruption in the period to 2022. The new initiatives fall within this strategy, which commits the government to prioritise "improving the global business environment while working with other countries to combat corruption".

The UK has also been pushing for the introduction of public registers of 'persons with significant control' (PSCs) over companies since it introduced its own register in 2016. The World Bank has estimated that 70% of grand corruption cases have involved the use of companies with anonymous owners.

UK prime minister Theresa May announced a number of initiatives to tackle organised crime and recover illegal assets in developing countries during her visit to Kenya in August. This included the creation of new 'centres of British expertise' in major financial hubs, and training and mentoring law enforcement officials in southern and eastern Africa in stronger investigation techniques.