Commentary on Sections Part 12: Bribery and Corruption Section 108 Bribery and corruption: foreign officers etc
287.Sections 108 and 109 implement proposals contained in the Government White Paper “Raising Standards and Upholding Integrity: the Prevention of Corruption” (CM 4759, June 2000).
288.Section 108 ensures that the common law offence of bribery extends to persons holding public office outside the UK (subsection (1)). It also amends the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916 to ensure that those Acts cover the bribery and corruption of officials of foreign public bodies, as well as ‘agents’ (within the meaning of the 1906 Act) of foreign ‘principals’ (who may be in the public or private sector), (subsections (2) – (4)).