UK attacked over failure to bring in bribery laws

BRITAIN was given a corruption health warning today when an international watchdog declared the Government had failed to combat "foreign bribery".

In a damning report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's working group on bribery called for swift measures to introduce new laws to crack down on the problem.

The OECD launched a review of British anti-bribery measures in the wake of the decision by the Serious Fraud Office in 2006 to drop an investigation into BAE Systems over an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform remains responsible for tackling bribery, even though Justice Secretary Jack Straw is the lead Cabinet minister on the issue.

Today, the OECD said it was "disappointed and seriously concerned with the unsatisfactory implementation" of its anti-bribery convention by the UK. "The continued failure of the UK to address deficiencies in its laws on bribery of foreign public officials and on corporate liability for foreign bribery has hindered investigations," its report said.

At the OECD headquarters in Paris, the working group's chairman Mark Pieth said: "We are saying this situation cannot go on."