Spotlight’s work highlighting the absence of compensation for victims of corruption has developed from advocating consistently in the media and in meetings with civil servants and law enforcement for compensation to identifying the real blocks and legal hurdles to its consistent application. We have also worked closely with civil society in southern countries on developing arguments for compensation in relation to a major enforcement action (Airbus). We submitted evidence to the Justice Committee on scrutiny of the new Victims Bill. We have also engaged closely with government to the extent that a cross-departmental working group has now been established on compensation and there is considerable work going on within government on the issue. We are maximising the opportunity of the recent lack of compensation in the Glencore bribery case to push for reform.
We worked with a Nigerian civil society organisation to highlight issues with return of assets to Nigeria. Our work on asset recovery has also been influential with government, particularly in relation to its new Framework for Transparent and Accountable Asset Return introduced in early 2022.