An extract entitled United Kingdom: Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Investigations by Christopher David, Alison Geary, Lloyd Firth, Anna Gaudoin and Fred Saugman from GIR’s The European, Middle Eastern and African Investigations Review 2018, first published in July 2018. The whole publication is available at https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/edition/1001180/the-european-middle-eastern-and-african-investigations-review-2018.

Excerpt: Anti-corruption investigations and enforcement actions in the United Kingdom have continued to gather pace over the past 12 months. The commencement and pursuit of numerous high-profile investigations and prosecutions by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), as well as the UK’s other investigative, regulatory and prosecutorial bodies, coupled with the cementing of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) in the centre of the United Kingdom’s enforcement landscape, have continued to lend weight to the argument that the UK is now at the forefront of the global anti-corruption movement. This perception has been assisted by the strengthening of the UK’s statutory anti-corruption framework and recent landmark judicial developments in respect of the availability of legal professional privilege (LPP) in an investigative context. This chapter explores the current trends and developments in anti-corruption enforcement and investigations and offers insight on the likely direction of travel for the UK’s enforcement agencies in 2018.