United Nations Convention against Corruption Self-assessment Name: UK Second Cycle Review-20180108-134632 Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Date of creation: 24/11/2017 Assessor: Renny Mendoza Assessor Position: International Policy Advisor: Joint Anti-Corruption Unit Release: 3.0.0.15 Comments: Completed self-assessment checklists should be sent to: Corruption and Economic Crime Section Division for Treaty Affairs United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Vienna International Centre PO Box 500 1400 Vienna, Austria Attn: KAMBERSKA Natasha Telephone: + (43) (1) 26060-4293 Telefax: + (43) (1) 26060-74293 E-mail: [email protected] A. General information A. General information 1. General information 1519 1 Focal point: Renny Mendoza 2 Institutions consulted: Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service, Serious Fraud Office, National Crime Agency, Her Majesty’s Treasury, Ministry of Justice, Financial Conduct Authority, HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Department for International Development. 3 Please provide information on the ratification/acceptance/approval/accession process of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in your country (date of ratification/acceptance/approval of/accession to the Convention, date of entry into force of the Convention in your country, procedure to be followed for ratification/acceptance/approval of/accession to international conventions etc.). UNCAC Ratification Signature date: 9 December 2003 Ratification date: 9 February 2006 Entry into force date: 11 March 2006 Procedure to be followed for ratification of international conventions: The United Kingdom (UK) is a ‘dualist’ state. The UK constitution accords no special status to treaties: rights and obligations created by treaties have no effect in UK law unless legislation is in force to give effect to them. When the UK Government ratifies a treaty - even with Parliamentary involvement - this does not amount to legislating. For a treaty provision to become part of domestic law, the relevant legislature must explicitly incorporate it into domestic law. Under Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, all treaties that are subject to ratification, acceptance, approval, the notification of completion of procedures, or to which the UK accedes, cannot be ratified unless they have been laid by a Minister of the Crown before Parliament for 21 sitting days without either House having resolved that it should not be ratified. The Basic Process: 08/01/2018 United Kingdom of UK Second Cycle Review-20180108- Page 2 of 198 Great Britain and 134632 Northern Ireland • The Government signs the finalised treaty. • Parliament makes any necessary domestic legislative changes. • The Government lays the signed treaty before Parliament in the form of a Command Paper, along with an Explanatory Memorandum to assist Parliamentarians in their consideration of the treaty. Parliament does not ratify treaties. But Parliament does have an important role in scrutinising treaty provisions before the Government takes the formal legally binding step of consent to be bound by a treaty by ratification. • If either House resolves against ratification during the 21 sitting day period, the Government must explain why it wants to ratify. The House of Commons can effectively block the Government from ratifying the treaty by passing repeated resolutions. • If there are no outstanding resolutions, the Government can ratify the treaty by the execution and depositing of an instrument of ratification signed by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. • The treaty enters into force for the UK according to the provisions in the treaty. 4 Please briefly describe the legal and institutional system of your country. The UK Model The UK is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The UK model consists of a constitutional Head of State (Her Majesty the Queen); a sovereign Parliament, comprised of the House of Commons and the House of Lords; an executive power (the Government, led by the Prime Minister) drawn from and accountable to Parliament; and an independent judiciary. The executive power is exercised by the Government, which has a democratic mandate to govern. Members of the Government are normally members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords and government ministers are directly accountable to Parliament. The United Kingdom does not have a written, codified constitution. There is no single document that describes, establishes or regulates the structures of the State and the way in which these relate to the people. Instead, the constitutional order has evolved over time and continues to do so. It consists of various institutions, statutes, judicial decisions, principles and practices that are commonly understood as “constitutional”. Devolved Administrations Scotland, Wales and, Northern Ireland have a degree of devolved government with Westminster reserving powers over inter alia defence and national security, foreign policy, immigration and tax policy (income rates devolved in Scotland). Devolution is not uniform across these regions - there are distinctions in inter alia legal systems or tax policy (noted above) that vary between the devolved administrations. International Conventions and UK Law As noted above, treaties do not, on ratification, automatically become incorporated into UK law. For this reason, the UK only ratifies international conventions once UK law is deemed by the Government to be compliant. 08/01/2018 United Kingdom of UK Second Cycle Review-20180108- Page 3 of 198 Great Britain and 134632 Northern Ireland In the UK legal system, there are both overarching laws that cover the entire UK and laws that cover only England and Wales, Scotland, and/or Northern Ireland. While many provisions of law are statutory in nature, some are contained in the “common law” of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which consists of the UK’s historical legal traditions that have been interpreted and made binding through judicial precedent. Scotland has its own independent and in parts clearly different judicial system with own jurisdiction. While closely related, the legal traditions of Scotland, which has a mixed common law/civil law history, differ in some regards to the rest of the UK - particularly in the areas of elections, property or commercial law. The Crown Dependencies The Crown Dependencies are the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The Crown Dependencies are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown. This means they have their own directly elected legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and their own courts of law. The Crown Dependencies are not represented in the UK Parliament. The Crown Dependencies have never been colonies of the UK. The constitutional relationship of the Islands with the UK is through the Crown and is not enshrined in a formal constitutional document. The UK Government is responsible for the defence and international relations of the Islands. The Crown Dependencies are not recognised internationally as sovereign States in their own right but as “territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible”. As such they cannot sign up to international agreements under their own aegis but can have the UK’s ratification of such instruments extended to them, unless they have been entrusted to do so (as they have been in the case of Tax Information Exchange Agreements, and other agreements relating to taxation that provide for exchange of information on tax matters, with EU Member States, including the UK, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G20 member countries). The Overseas Territories The 14 Overseas Territories are largely former colonies and cover a range of regions, from Gibraltar and the Falklands to Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Most are largely self-governing with their own constitutions and governments. But the people who live there are British citizens, the Queen is their head of state and Britain is responsible for their defence and security. Treaties The long-standing practice of the UK when it ratifies, accedes to, or accepts a treaty, convention or agreement is to do so on behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and any of the Crown Dependencies or Overseas Territories that wish the treaty to apply to them. The UK’s ratification, accession or acceptance can also be extended at a later date. This means that, when the UK is planning to ratify a particular convention or treaty, it should consult the Crown Dependencies about whether they wish to have it extended to them. 08/01/2018 United Kingdom of UK Second Cycle Review-20180108- Page 4 of 198 Great Britain and 134632 Northern Ireland The general practice has been for the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to decide to which treaties they wish to become Party. Likewise, responsibility for implementation, such as ensuring local law is compliant with the conventions and is delivered in practice, is for those individual Governments. When asking for a convention to be extended, the Territories have to complete a transposition table that shows how they believe they have implemented/fulfilled the obligations of the convention. 5 In a separate communication addressed and e-mailed to the secretariat ([email protected]), please provide a list of relevant laws, policies