Bribery Act 2010 (Chapter 23).

The purpose of the Act is to reform the criminal law of bribery to provide for a new consolidated scheme of bribery offences to cover bribery both in the United Kingdom (UK) and abroad.
The Act repeals the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916, and several other Acts (see Schedule 2) and introduces two general bribery offences: 1) “offences of bribing another person”, defined as the offering, promising or giving of an advantage to another person; 2) “offences to being bribed”, offences that deal with the requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting of an advantage. Under the Act the “advantage” could be either a function or activity, and is “relevant to the bribery”: (a) any function of a public nature; (b) any activity connected with a business; (c) any activity performed in the course of a person's employment; (d) any activity performed by or on behalf of a body of persons (whether corporate or unincorporate) and meets one or more of the following conditions: Condition A (the person performing the function or activity is expected to perform it in good faith); Condition B (the person performing the function or activity is expected to perform it impartially); Condition C (the person performing the function or activity is in a position of trust by virtue of performing it). A function or activity is a relevant function or activity even if it has no connection with the United Kingdom, and is performed in a country or territory outside the United Kingdom.
The Act also creates also a “bribery of a foreign public official” (section 6) and a new offence for commercial organisations that fail to prevent bribery (sections 7-9). Moreover, the Act establishes a duty on the Secretary of State to publish guidance about procedures that relevant commercial organisations can put in place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing.
Under prosecution and penalties, the Act rules that the offences in the Act may only be instituted by, or with the consent of, the Director of the relevant prosecuting authority and establishes a maximum penalty of imprisonment for all the offences, except the offence relating to commercial organisations, which will carry an unlimited fine. The territorial application of the Act allows to prosecute a bribery offence (act or omission) committed in United Kingdom, and abroad by persons with a close connection with the United Kingdom. A person has a close connection with the United Kingdom when the person is one of the following: (a)a British citizen, (b)a British overseas territories citizen, (c)a British National (Overseas), (d)a British Overseas citizen, (e)a person who under the British Nationality Act 1981 was a British subject, (f)a British protected person within the meaning of that Act, (g)an individual ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, (h)a body incorporated under the law of any part of the United Kingdom, (i)a Scottish partnership.
The Act recognises as defence for certain bribery offences that the bribery conduct was necessary for the proper exercise of any function of the intelligence services or the armed forces engaged on active service.