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In light of the depth of concern at the government’s handling of conflict of interest issues, the new procurement policy note represents a useful clarification of the existing rules and policy frameworks. Disappointingly, it only introduces minor changes that fall far short of what is needed to fix what is clearly a broken system.

Account Freezing Orders (AFO) were introduced in the UK in the 2017 Criminal Finances Act, alongside Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs), as a new measure designed to tackle illicit finance. While receiving far less attention than their glitzy sister order, AFOs are emerging as the preferred tool for law enforcement to freeze and recover corrupt assets in a relatively straightforward and cost-effective way.

UK needs much stronger rules to prevent new chumocracy scandals. Post-Brexit procurement reform is an opportunity to create a tough national strategy drawing on best practice from US & Canada.

28 January 2021

Parliamentary briefing on adding an ammendment to the Financial Services Bill to create a new corporate criminal offence for facilitating or failing to prevent economic crime

Spotlight on Corruption is today releasing a major new report on the role of UK Export Finance (UKEF) in fighting corruption in the UK’s post-Brexit and post-coronavirus trade drive. UKEF is a government agency that provides taxpayer support to underwrite the majority of financial risk that UK companies face when exporting abroad. UKEF is being called upon to play an enhanced role in the government’s trade drive. In particular, UKEF’s ability to make direct loans to foreign governments and...