Spotlight convenes roundtable on compensation for overseas victims of corruption

On 15 November 2024, Spotlight organised a multi-stakeholder roundtable on the UK’s framework for compensating the overseas victims of corruption.

The Chatham House-style discussion brought together civil servants, law enforcement officials, legal experts and civil society stakeholders to explore potential reforms to ensure victims of foreign bribery are better represented and compensated in UK cases.

A background briefing shared with participants ahead of the event (and published below) sets out the current framework for compensation, highlights key lessons learned from recent corruption cases, identifies the main challenges to the award of compensation, and outlines potential vehicles for reform. 

With growing consensus that the current compensation regime is failing to recognise and deliver meaningful compensation for the broad harms caused by corruption, this solution-oriented roundtable drew on the expertise and experience of participants to identify promising reforms that will help achieve a step change in compensation for the overseas victims of corruption. 

A summary of the discussion is published below, highlighting the key takeaways for how we can achieve a step change in compensation for victims of corruption:

• Changes to the sentencing guidelines for foreign bribery to introduce a simple, efficient yet principled method for calculating compensation that moves beyond direct financial loss and reflects a recognition of the broader harms of corruption;

• The introduction of legislative reforms to diversify the routes for claiming compensation, such as a follow-on procedure and/or a representative action;
• The development of a clear policy framework for compensation which sets out fundamental principles of transparency, accountability and civil society participation; and
• The establishment of new mechanisms to help coordinate and represent the interests of victims, and administer the disbursement of compensation.

We are grateful to Serle Court for generously hosting the roundtable, and to all our participants for their invaluable contributions.