Decline in UK corruption rating puts spotlight on UK's poor record

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Transparency International’s global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2008, launched today, shows a significant worsening of the way the UK’s attitude to corruption is seen in the world. The UK’s score has dropped from 8.4 last year to only 7.7 today: the first time it has ever fallen from the high rating of more than 8 (10 is the highest a country can score on the Index).

The UK's engrained complacency over its failure to take international corruption seriously is now further exposed to public scrutiny. The UK has a wretched foreign bribery prosecution record compared to most of its G7 peers. It was strongly criticised this summer by the OECD body responsible for ensuring that members comply with the 1997 OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and may now face tougher measures by the OECD if it continues to fail.

Chairman of Transparency International (UK), Laurence Cockcroft, said:

“In some respects, this year's CPI still flatters the UK. Many developed and developing countries find the UK's attitude inexplicable. Is it really so difficult to pass a proper anti-corruption law in 11 years since one was required and recommended? Can the abandonment of the most significant investigation into alleged international bribery, the BAE/Al-Yamamah investigation, honestly be motivated by 'national security'? The House of Lords may have exonerated the Serious Fraud Office on a technicality; but most of the world doesn't believe these excuses, and is coming to realise that the UK still thinks corruption helps win business. The opposite is true; but - worse - bad governance is now accepted everywhere as the most entrenched source of conflict and poverty.”

Executive Director of Transparency International (UK), Chandrashekhar Krishnan, added:

“Public confidence in political office has been eroded by the 'cash-for-honours' affair and the grudging exposures of MP's expenses. The new CPI rating suggests that business itself is sharing this loss of trust. If the UK, which provides the most comprehensive access to world markets, does nothing to check foreign bribery and fails to help others who are trying to tackle it, well-governed companies will ask whether they incur unacceptable risks by organizing their commerce in the UK. The Government has known for a decade that it had to act; but it has dithered indecisively
while the country’s reputation has been ruined”.

The 2008 CPI ranks 180 countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It defines corruption as ‘the abuse of entrusted power for private gain’.

The surveys used in compiling the CPI ask questions relating to the misuse of public power for private benefit. These include for example: bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds or questions that probe the strength and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts, thereby encompassing both the administrative and political aspects of corruption.

Notes to the editor

About the CPI

The CPI reflects views from around the world, including those of experts who are living in the countries evaluated. Transparency International commissions the CPI from Johann Graf Lambsdorff, Chair Economic Theory, University of Passau and Senior Research Advisor to TI. It is a composite index, a poll of polls, drawing on corruption-related data from 13 different polls and surveys from 11 independent institutions. To qualify, the data must be available for at least two years, well documented and sufficient to permit a judgment on its reliability. All sources must provide a ranking of nations and must measure the overall extent of corruption. This condition excludes surveys which mix corruption with other issues, such as political instability, decentralization or nationalism for instance.

The polls or surveys that were used for the UK were as follows:

1. EIU: Economist Intelligence Unit 2008
2. IMD: World Competitiveness Report of the Institute for Management Development 2007 and 2008
3. MIG: Merchant International Group 2007
4. PERC: Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, Hong Kong 2007 and 2008
5. WEF: Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum 2007
6. GI: Global Insights (formerly World Markets Research Centre) 2008

The CPI 2008 is based on data primarily from the past two years, relating to perceptions that may have been formed even further in the past. This means that substantial changes in perceptions of corruption are only likely to emerge in the index over longer periods of time.

For more information in an international context, a full list of survey sources, details on questions asked and number of respondents for the CPI 2008 please visit http://www.transparency.org/cpi.

UK CPI scores
2008 7.7
2007 8.4
2006 8.6
2005 8.6
2004 8.6
2003 8.7
2002 8.7
2001 8.3
2000 8.7 
1999 8.6
1998 8.7
1996 8.6
1995 8.4

Further data is available at http://www.transparency.org/cpi.