Brexit poses threat to Britain's anti-corruption fight warns OECD

The agency questions whether leaving the EU could prompt the UK to weaken the Bribery Act in order to attract foreign investment after 2019

(Rex Features)

Brexit could undermine British efforts to clampdown on bribery and corruption, the OECD has warned.

In a new report the multilateral Paris-based agency says the UK's departure from the European Union raises questions over whether EU money laundering and sanctions rules will continue to apply in Britain after 2019

Further, the OECD questions whether Brexit could prompt the UK to weaken the Bribery Act in order to attract foreign investment or whether the bureaucratic workload involved in leaving the EU will impede the state from investigating and prosecuting economic crime.

The OECD said that the UK had in recent years made "solid progress" in tackling bribery and corruption but added that the total number of cases relative to the UK economy remains low and that "stronger enforcement" was necessary.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, earlier this week vowed the Government will crack down on money laundering, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused in a Guardian investigation of handling $740m of dirty money from Russia.

In 2014 The Independent had first reported the details of the massive money laundering scam involving UK front companies.

Transparency International UK and Corruption Watch both echoed the OECD's warnings about the Brexit risk to the corruption and bribery fight.

Sue Hawley of Corruption Watch said the establishment of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) system in 2014 whereby companies can settle bribery investigations by paying a fine had already undermined the UK's corruption-fighting credibility.

In January Rolls-Royce paid £671m to the UK and US authorities under a DPA to settle charges that the engineering firm engaged in bribery, or failed to prevent it, in China and India and a host of overseas other markets.

In 2006 Tony Blair intervened to halt a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into BAE Systems for alleged bribery in a Saudi Arabian arms deal, citing the danger that the Saudis would stop co-operating with the UK on counter-terror operations if it continued.

The OECD report says the SFO "could achieve more in terms of foreign bribery investigations and prosecutions".