Corruption

Current project status

• Initiation: Could include discussing scope and terms of reference with lead Government Department
• Pre-consultation: Could include approaching interest groups and specialists, producing scoping and issues papers, finalising terms of project
• Consultation: Likely to include consultation events and paper, making provisional proposals for comment
• Policy development: Will include analysis of consultation responses. Could include further issues papers and consultation on draft Bill
• Reported: Usually recommendations for law reform but can be advice to government, scoping report or other recommendations

Superseded by our report, Reforming Bribery

This project has been superseded by our work on Bribery.

We carried out this project in response to calls from two prestigious bodies for a review of this area of the law: the Salmon Commission and the Nolan Committee. We were also very conscious of the consequences of corruption, which strikes at the root of our commercial life and of democracy itself. If public servants require to be bribed, or make decisions in response to bribes, the government is not democratic, and the citizen cannot rely on a principle which we take for granted, namely that those in positions of power will take their decisions in accordance with the law.