December 13, 2011 New Anti-Bribery standard launched
The British Standards Institute (BSI) has launched BS10500:2011, a new specification for anti-bribery management systems. It follows the introduction of the UK Bribery Act 2010 which came into force in July 2011.
Under the terms of the UK Bribery Act, even if bribery takes place within a company the company can, in certain circumstances, escape prosecution if they can show that they have ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent bribery taking place. Although there are already a myriad of different guides and policies in existence to help companies show this, the BSI aims to set the benchmark and it has been officially endorsed by The World Federation of Engineering Organizations.
Although the standard has been designed for all types of businesses, the BSI says that it should be particularly useful for those companies involved in the construction, oil, gas, mining and defence sectors. You can find out more at the BSI website here.
