Deferred Prosecution Agreement scheme and failure to prevent bribery offence for Australia

The Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan MP has announced that the Australian Coalition Government will today introduce new laws to establish a Deferred Prosecution Agreement as part of a raft of new reforms to Australia’s anti-bribery and corruption regime. The introduction of these reforms comes ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day on Saturday and have been announced despite theSenate Economic References Committee being given a further extension to publish its report on the foreign bribery inquiry by 7 February 2018 rather than by 7 December 2017 as was originally planned. 

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 aims to:

• Reduce barriers to investigations and prosecutions
• Beef up offences pinging companies that operate overseas
• Create a Deferred Prosecution Agreement regime (the first of its kind for Australia) that will encourage companies to be transparent and self-report
• Push responsibility onto companies to strengthen their anti-bribery and corruption risk compliance systems by introducing a new offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery and an adequate procedures defence

More to come!

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm, with 63 offices across Europe, the USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Central Asia.  We advise corporates, financial institutions and senior executives extensively on the implications of international business ethics and anti-corruption best practice standards, wider developments in the legislative and corporate landscape, and in relation to internal and government-led investigations. A particular focus of our advice has been on the concept of adequate procedures and the broader issues of risk management and compliance.

For more information, contact Abigail McGregor