Emergency Budget Announced
19th May 2010
On 18 May 2010, the coalition government announced that George Osborne will deliver an Emergency Budget on Tuesday 22 June 2010. Deep spending and tax cuts are expected in an attempt to address the £163bn budget deficit.
George Osborne further announced that a new Office of Budget Responsibility is to be established which will provide forecasts for the economy and public finances, acting to take away some of his own powers.
We will be commenting on the impact of the budget for the SME sector when the full details have been announced.
Bribery Act 2010 Businesses Placed on the Hook
The Bribery Act (“the Act”) has been approved by the House of Commons and the House Lords and will come into force once a commencement order has been finalised.
The Act introduces a new offence of Failure of Commercial Organisations to Prevent Bribery. Accordingly, the employer of someone caught in an act of bribery can now be held accountable for those acts, even where the employer did not condone or even know about the bribery.
This new offence is strict liability and applies to ‘relevant commercial organisations’ i.e. corporate bodies or partnerships either formed in the UK or carrying on business in the UK. An unlimited fine and costs are the consequences facing businesses as a result of their employee’s acts.
A company’s only defence will be to show that they have ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent bribery. What exactly is adequate remains to be tested. In the footnotes of the draft Bill the Government has stated that: “it is open to a defendant organisation to adduce evidence which shows that…given the size of the organisation, the particular sector or country in which it operated and the foreseeable risks, its procedures employed to prevent bribery…were adequate’. The Government has promised to publish guidance on this point in due course.
Inaction is therefore not an option for any UK company; all companies despite their size will be affected.
Companies will need to undertake a full review of their current anti-bribery systems and seek legal advice as to whether their existing or proposed procedures will be adequate under the Act.
If you require help with the review of your existing anti-bribery systems or assistance in creating new procedures, please contact Vanessa Williams or Reena Gokani at Rochman Landau LLP:-
T: 0207 544 424
Reena and Vanessa will also be pleased to discuss any other corporate/commercial issues you may have.
Association of Indian Lawyers take action against foreign law firms in India
12 April 2010
A group of Indian lawyers is seeking government action against 31 foreign law firms, and a legal process outsourcing (LPO) company for illegally practising law in India.
A petition for a writ compelling the Indian government to act against foreign lawyers was filed in the Madras High Court on behalf of the Association of Indian Lawyers. The writ, which names a number of high-profile UK and US law firms, accuses the foreign law firms of 'conducting arbitrations in Indian hotels for which payments are made to their head office locations outside India'. This is in violation of Indian law.
Although international law firms are already barred from having offices in India ( a restriction strengthened by a Bombay High Court decision in December), the Association of Indian Lawyers would also like to see other means by which foreign firms operate in India being targeted.
It is unclear how much foreign firms or LPO's need to worry about the case, as the wheels of Indian justice turn extremely slowly. December's Bombay High Court decision, which ruled that three foreign firms' Indian "liaison" offices were barred along with other foreign law offices, came 14 years after the initial proceedings were filed.
