Spotlight on Corruption strongly welcomes today’s publication of a new UK government anti-corruption strategy with a comprehensive and wide-ranging set of 120 commitments. As global anti-corruption norms slide, tackling corruption could not be more important to protecting our democracy.
Along with our partners at the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition we are encouraged by the high levels of political buy-in for tackling corruption through this strategy, the commitment to beef up anti-corruption enforcement, tackle professional enablers, and show real global leadership. The evidence-based analysis for the strategy provides a clear and robust framework for tackling corruption at home, and globally, and the robust monitoring mechanism for the strategy is particularly encouraging.
But in many areas – such as whistleblower protection and preventing abusive litigation against public-interest reporting – the strategy lacks clear timelines, and relies too heavily on future reviews or undertakings to explore action. In some cases, such as victims of corruption and a corruption reporting mechanism, the commitments to action barely go beyond previous anti-corruption strategies. Victims of corruption for instance will need to wait two years before getting any guidance on how to get compensation.
And in several areas, the strategy is seriously lacking. The failure to make a concrete commitment to a major reform of the lobbying regime is deeply disappointing given the serious vulnerabilities that have been highlighted by multiple reviews. And the lack of commitment to upgrade how conflicts of interest are managed across the public sector – despite serious criticism by the National Audit Office last year – is a genuinely missed opportunity.
Recent scandals, from conflicts of interest in procurement as revealed by the Sunday Times at the weekend, to those in hospitality for politicians revealed in the Times today, to the murky access to our political system for foreign firms highlighted by Democracy for Sale last week, show just how important tackling political integrity and addressing conflicts of interest is. With the government’s own polling showing 85% of the public are concerned by corruption in the public sector this must be addressed as a priority.
Meanwhile, after recent corruption scandals involving the Ministry of Defence, the lack of concrete commitments by the department to address its corruption and economic crime risks with defence spending set to grow exponentially is a major gap.
Along with colleagues in the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, we urge the government to come forward with more detailed implementation plans with clear timelines and concrete next steps, and to ramp up ambition in delivering reforms to the UK’s political integrity.
Helen Taylor, Deputy Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said:
“The high-level political ownership of this strategy is a welcome recognition of how vital the fight against corruption is for fostering public trust in our democracy and building a fairer, more prosperous future for all. But it is disappointing that many commitments are not pinned to concrete actions or clear timelines, leaving implementation up to little more than good intentions. It is crucial the UK makes good on its aspirations to genuine global leadership on tackling corruption and illicit finance by speedy delivery.”
