COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM Review by Greece and Israel of the implementation by the United Kingdom of Chapter III. “Criminalization and law enforcement” and Chapter IV. “International cooperation” of the United Nations Convention against Corruption for the review cycle 2011 - 2012 1 I. Introduction 1. The Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Cor- ruption (hereinafter referred to as UNCAC or the Convention) was established pursuant to Article 63 of the Convention to, inter alia, promote and review the implementation of the Convention. 2. In accordance with Article 63, paragraph 7, of the Convention, the Conference estab- lished at its third session, held in Doha from 9 to 13 November 2009, the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the Convention. The Mechanism was established also pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention, which states that States parties shall carry out their obligations under the Convention in a manner consistent with the principles of sover- eign equality and territorial integrity of States and of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other States. 3. The Review Mechanism is an intergovernmental process whose overall goal is to as- sist States parties in implementing the Convention. 4. The review process is based on the terms of reference of the Review Mechanism. II. Process 5. The following review of the implementation by the United Kingdom of the Conven- tion is based on the completed response to the comprehensive self-assessment checklist re- ceived from the United Kingdom, and any supplementary information provided in accord- ance with paragraph 27 of the terms of reference of the Review Mechanism and the outcome of the constructive dialogue between the governmental experts from Greece, Israel and the United Kingdom, by means of telephone conferences and e-mail exchanges and involving the following experts: United Kingdom: - Mr. Craig Robertson, Governance Adviser, Anti-Corruption, Financial Accountabil- ity and Anti-Corruption Team, Department for International Development; - Mr. Justin Williams, Policy Adviser, Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime, Depart- ment for International Development; - Mr. Roderick Macauley, Head of Bribery, Criminal Law and Legal Policy, Ministry of Justice; - Ms. Alison Moore, Lawyer, UK Central Authority for Mutual Legal Assistance, Home Office; - Mr. Adrian Nembhard, Economic Adviser, Financial Accountability and Anti- Corruption Team, Department for International Development (East Kilbride). Greece: - Dr. Ioannis Androulakis, Special Counsel to the Secretary General of the Hellenic Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights; - Mr. Demosthenes Stingas, Presiding Judge at the Court of First Instance of Lesvos. Israel: 2 - Mr. Yitzchak Blum, Deputy Director, Department of International Affairs, Office of the State Attorney, Ministry of Justice; - Ms. Amit Merari, Director, Legislative Department (Criminal Law), Ministry of Jus- tice. Secretariat: - Mrs. Brigitte Strobel-Shaw, Chief, Conference Support Section, Corruption and Eco- nomic Crime Branch, UNODC; - Ms. Tanja Santucci, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Corruption and Economic Crime Branch, UNODC. 6. A country visit, agreed to by the United Kingdom, was conducted in London from 26 to 30 March 2012. During the on-site visit, meetings were held with the Ministry of Justice, Home Office, HM Treasury, Financial Services Authority, Cabinet Office, Crown Prosecu- tion Service, Serious Fraud Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency, City of London Po- lice, Metropolitan Police, Southwark Crown Court, National Audit Office, civil society and the private sector. Meetings also included representatives from Scotland and Northern Ire- land. III. Executive summary 1. Introduction 1.1 Legal system of the United Kingdom 7. The United Kingdom (UK) is a constitutional monarchy. The Parliament at Westmin- ster in England remains the seat of Government for the UK, but Scotland, Wales, and North- ern Ireland also have a degree of devolved government. The UK has independent judiciaries. 8. 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. 9. 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. 10. 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 histor- ical legal traditions that have been interpreted and made binding through judicial precedent. While closely related, the legal traditions of Scotland, which has a mixed common law/civil law history, differ in some regards. 1.2 Overview of the anti-corruption legal and institutional framework of the UK 11. Currently, the Cabinet Office houses the international anti-corruption Champion. The Champion coordinates activities across government, working closely across Depart- ments, devolved administrations, law enforcement, prosecution authorities and regulatory agencies to ensure a coherent and joined-up approach to combat international corruption. 3 12. The Attorney General for England and Wales is the Minister responsible for superin- tending the main prosecuting authorities, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Se- rious Fraud Office (SFO). 13. In Scotland, most serious corruption cases are handled by the Serious and Organised Crime Division contained within the Crown Office. 14. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) is the principal prosecuting authority in Northern Ireland. 15. The SFO is responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious or complex fraud cases, and is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting cases of overseas corruption. Besides that, there are a considerable number of other national, re- gional and local authorities (such as the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Met- ropolitan Police, the City of London Police and others) that have competence to deal with corruption related offences, depending on the specific context or place of their emergence. 2. Implementation of Chapters III and IV 2.1 Criminalization and Law Enforcement (Chapter III) 2.1.1 Observations on the implementation of the articles under review 16. The review indicates that the UK legal system, despite its complex and multifaceted character, criminalizes corruption related offences in accordance for the most part with the requirements of Chapter III. Equally, UK law enforcement mechanisms are highly adequate and in some ways exemplary for the purposes of the Convention. Bribery offences; trading in influence (Articles 15, 16, 18, 21) 17. Bribery in both the public and private sector, as well as bribery concerning foreign public officials and officials of public international organizations are all comprehensively criminalized in the Bribery Act 2010. 18. Although the UK bribery offences do not use the concept of a “public official”, they cover all cases involving persons performing a public function or providing a public service, including members of Parliament, employees of public enterprises, soldiers and public serv- ants serving abroad. As to bribery in the private sector, the Bribery Act applies to any per- son who “directs or works, in any capacity, for a private sector entity” (as defined in the Convention), even if the person’s function or activity has no connection with, or is per- formed outside, the UK. Equally, the concept of a “foreign public official” in Section 6 subs. 5 of the Bribery Act reflects all elements of the definitions of Article 2 (b) and (c) of UNCAC. 19. Furthermore, despite the unusual and complicated structure of the offences of active and passive bribery, all required objective and subjective elements are contained in the rele- vant provisions. Regarding trading in influence, the general bribery offences in the Bribery Act 2010 are broad enough to cover most circumstances related with the behaviour in ques- tion. 4 20. Sanctions for bribery offences differ depending on whether there is a summary con- viction or a conviction on indictment and reflect to some extent the different jurisdictional limits applied in different parts of the UK. In the vast majority of cases, corruption would be triable on indictment, whereby sanctions could reach an unlimited fine and/or imprisonment of up to 10 years. Laundering of proceeds of crime; concealment (Articles 23, 24) 21. UK law criminalizes money laundering and concealment in accordance with the Convention. 22. Sections 327 and 334 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 cover the concealment, disguise, conversion, transfer and removal of criminal property, which constitutes a person’s benefit from criminal conduct. Conspiracy and attempts to commit offences, aiding and abetting and counselling the commission of crime are criminalized in Sections 328 and 340 subs. 11(b) and (c). 23. The UK takes an “all crimes” approach to money laundering that encompasses con- duct which constitutes an offence in any part of the UK or which would constitute an offence in the UK, had the conduct occurred there. The UK has not excluded self-laundering and has even dispensed in some cases with dual criminality as a prerequisite to recognize foreign predicate offences. 24. Concealment is also fully covered and includes the rights acquired by someone in relation