Corruption offences are not subject to any special jurisdictional rules but the law is applied territorially. Anyone of any nationality who corruptly offers, solicits, pays or accepts a bribe within the UK (or on board a British ship or aircraft, in British territorial waters or British airspace) is therefore guilty of an offence. This includes foreign officials who offer, solicit, pay or receive bribes here, and those who offer bribes to them or receive bribes from them in the UK.
The territorial rule does not require the recipient to be physically present in this country. For example, a UK resident trader may agree to pay a bribe to a foreign official into the official's bank account in London. Both parties would be guilty of a corruption offence under UK law because the payment was made here.
The UK does not generally have jurisdiction over a corruption offence merely because some preparatory action took place here provided the actual offer or payment of the bribe took place abroad. Nevertheless, Sections 5-7 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998 make it an offence to conspire to commit offences abroad, and this may well cover preparatory actions here, and in turn may render the related payments disallowable under ICTA88/S577A.
FA02 extended the scope of the section to payments made outside the UK - see BIM43150.
