Corruption, regulation and the law: the power not to prosecute under the UK Bribery Act 2010

This chapter examines the challenges as well as opportunities for a more proactive prosecution model which places anti-bribery enforcement responsibility on corporations themselves, using the provisions of Section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010 as an example. It analyses the operation of this Act in the light of responsibilisation theory and the de-centring of prosecution, by focusing on some regulatory dimensions of the Act and a new tool of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement. The prosecution of companies must be seen in the context of a globalised world in which many corporations can deploy considerably more resources and even political power than a nation state. The chapter discusses whether the risk of corruption and the failure to prevent it can be reduced by regulatory interventions to hold companies accountable for their actions and to ‘influenc(e) the culture of the company’ instead of just punishing the wrongdoing.