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Bribery Act 2010

On the 1st of July 2011 the Bribery Act came into force. The Bribery Act applies to all commercial and NHS organisations and provides a new consolidated scheme of bribery offences.

NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCG is against any form of bribery and is committed to the terms and obligations imposed by the Bribery Act. It is a duty of all our staff to consider any hospitality or gifts offered to them, inform their line manager of the offer and to declare any such hospitality on the Gift and Hospitality Register, including hospitality declined.

When entering into contracts with organisations, the CCG adopts best practice in how it contracts for the purchase of goods, services and supplies and follows the NHS standard terms and conditions of contract for the purchase of goods and supplies.

What is Bribery?

The Bribery Act reforms the criminal law of bribery, making it easier to tackle this offence proactively in the public and private sectors.  In July 2011The Bribery Act came into force and introduced three main bribery offences:

  • Offering, promising or giving a bribe to another person;
  • Requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a bribe;
  • Failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery (Corporate Offence).

The Corporate Offence is a strict liability offence and an organisation and its senior management can be found guilty of attempted or actual bribery on the organisation’s behalf, if the organisation fails to have in proper procedures in place to prevent bribery taking place.

Like the Fraud Act the Bribery Act also imposes strong sentences on conviction. The first case that was heard in Court under the new act related to receiving a £500 bribe for which the defendant was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

This organisation ceased to exist on 30 June 2022, please visit our new website for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board - Integrated Care Board :: Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System (icb.nhs.uk)