Transparency International is a global movement sharing one vision: a world in which government politics, business and the daily lives of people are free of corruption.
Transparency International UK is the UK national chapter of this movement.
We work with the UK and devolved governments, parliamentarians, civil society and the private sector to tackle corruption at home, addressing the UK’s global corruption footprint and helping multinational companies prevent corruption by operating with integrity.
We are also home to two major global programmes tackling corruption in the Defence and Security sector and Global Health on behalf of the wider Transparency International movement.
TI-UK is one of the most expert organisations working on corruption and economic crime in the UK. Their work has been instrumental in uncovering egregious cases of corruption and money laundering, whilst providing effective advocacy and evidenced-based policy solutions to influence legislative and policy change.
Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax.
is a world in which government, business, civil society, and the daily lives of people are free from corruption.
is to stop corruption, promote integrity and, to that end, hold power to account for the common good.
Our research, evidence and advocacy drives the use and improvement of law, regulations, systems and policy to deter and pursue corruption.
2022-23 Highlights
By driving the public and private sectors to change behaviour, attitudes and stop corruption.
2022-23 Highlights
By sharing knowledge, creating pressure and reducing opposition, we mobilise and support allies to tackle corruption.
2022-23 Highlights
Daniel Bruce
Chief Executive
Fiona Thompson
Trustee Chair
Here in the UK, in a clear indictment of standards in UK government and controls over the use of taxpayer money, this was also the year that Britain’s score in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index fell sharply to its lowest level since 2012. Only four other countries saw their scores drop by the same amount or more - Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Oman and Qatar. Of course, this by no means equates with what’s going on in Ukraine. But it does send a message: business executives around the world increasingly view corruption and bribery as a real issue in Britain, putting at risk the UK’s reputation as a trusted world player and a good place to do business.
These grim events leave no doubt that our work to stop corruption is more important than ever. So, we are pleased to report that this last year has seen Transparency International UK achieve key successes that are already helping to strengthen the fight against corruption here in the UK and where Britain has influence.
Our seven-year long campaign for transparency over the ownership of overseas companies that hold UK property finally bore fruit. The Register of Overseas Entities (ROE) came into effect in January 2023. It has already begun to reveal invaluable information about who really owns the anonymous companies behind high-end UK property. It raises important questions about dirty money, and how it affects the housing market and the lives of UK citizens. The register will also play a critical role in ensuring that sanctions imposed on those close to the Kremlin leadership are effective.
Inevitably, there remain loopholes for those determined and with the means to keep under the radar. We have been working this year to build pressure to close those gaps with our Partners in Crime report and in evidence we gave to two UK Parliamentary committees.
Meanwhile, with the continuing drip of political integrity scandals regularly dominating the headlines, we are thrilled at the success of another long-time Transparency International UK campaign. A new code of conduct for MPs, which delivers on some of our calls for tighter controls on second jobs came into force in March 2023. It bans politicians from accepting cash for lobbying services – a major source of conflict between their public and private roles. It is a significant step in preventing UK public policy being hijacked by vested interests and essential to protect our fragile democracy.
Our work exposing a fast-track lane for the politically connected to tender for COVID-19 response contracts continued this year. We submitted evidence to the government’s Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into the awarding of lucrative contracts to the testing company, Randox Laboratories. The Committee adopted a number of our recommendations in its final report on improving transparency in lobbying.
2023 marks ten years of our Business Integrity Forum which brings together companies committed to driving integrity in business and improving their internal anti-corruption process.
Our Investing with Integrity report made the case for impact investors to play a key role in preventing corruption by linking risk management with environment and social processes. It has been so well received, a follow-up laying out guidance for investors has already been commissioned.
With the war in Ukraine dominating news, a string of coups in West Africa and the lasting global impact of the pandemic, we focused on ensuring fighting corruption is embedded in critical multilateral frameworks and tools.
Our Defence and Security programme has played a key role in building consensus for the need for stronger regulation of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs).
Notorious outfits like the Wagner Group are increasingly replacing regular armies and security forces in Ukraine and parts of Africa with deadly consequences. Our advocacy has resulted in key anti-corruption wording being included in the framework being developed by the UN to regulate PMSCs.
As the world slowly begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, our Global Health programme has been contributing to international planning for the next major health emergency, focusing on transparency and equity in the financing and distribution of vaccines.
As a result of their advocacy, transparency and equity have now been included as key tenets in the World Health Organisation’s proposed Pandemic Preparedness Accord, and our recommendations on data sharing and contract transparency have also been adopted.
The imposition of sanctions on those close to the Kremlin and the stream of UK political scandals threw the spotlight on dirty money and the code of conduct for MPs as never before. Over the last year, we have used our networks to place key questions in the House of Commons, given oral and written evidence to parliamentary committees and put pressure on the Government to appoint the new Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests.
Another strong year for media coverage of our work reinforced our advocacy. We participated in over a dozen media collaborations, providing data and expertise exposing the role of the UK as an enabler of global corruption. This included a major project with The Guardian and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) cataloguing the vast wealth held outside Russia by oligarchs and key figures close to Russian President Putin. It was awarded the European Press Prize for Innovation. Law enforcement has used this data to bring cases to court. Alongside these collaborations we continued to receive significant high profile media coverage across our key campaigns.
Britain slumped to its lowest score since 2012 in this year’s Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The UK’s score fell sharply to 73 resulting in a seven place tumble from 11th to 18th in the global rankings.
The CPI uses impartial surveys from experts and business leaders to score and rank countries by the perceived level of corruption in their public sectors. It uses a scale of zero (perceived as highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived as very clean). Whilst the UK continues to have a relatively high score, only Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Oman and Qatar’s scores fell by as much or more than the UK’s. The clear message is that global business executives and the experts whose views contribute to the index increasingly view corruption and bribery as an issue in Britain, corroding our reputation as a good place to do business.
Globally, the CPI average score remains unchanged at 43 for the eleventh year in a row although some country rankings have changed.
More than two-thirds of countries still have a serious problem with corruption, scoring below 50. Denmark (90) tops the index, with South Sudan (13), Syria (13) and Somalia (12), all of which are embroiled in protracted conflicts, remaining at the bottom.
1
Stop the Flow of Dirty Money
2
Protect the Public’s Resources
3
Secure Integrity in Politics
4
Drive Integrity in Business
5
Incubate New Projects and Partnerships to Tackle Corruption
Because of the system of secrecy here in the UK and in relation to the Overseas Dependencies it’s really easy for people to hide their assets and their funds in the UK and not even the police necessarily have sight of where those assets are.
Rachel Davies Teka, Director of Advocacy, BBC News, April 2022.
President Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 followed swiftly by sanctions on those closely linked to the Kremlin put the global spotlight on dirty money in the UK. With Britain notorious as the safe haven of choice for Russian illicit finance, our longstanding calls for transparency over property ownership and a strengthened company registry took on new urgency.
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy, giving evidence to Parliament’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Public Bill Committee.
After our seven-year-long campaign, the government finally accepted the need for transparency over who owns overseas companies that hold UK property, creating the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE) in January 2023. Our research has found opaque companies based in secretive financial centres, like the British Virgin Islands, are used regularly to buy property here with corrupt wealth. The new register has already provided valuable insights including the revelation that the son of a senior Azerbaijani official is the true owner of an offshore company that owns a £17 million flat in one of London’s most expensive areas.
Our analysis of how the register is working, Through the Keyhole, highlights the inevitable remaining loopholes. Our findings were presented and scrutinised in the House of Commons. We are continuing to work to close those loopholes.
Our Investigations Lead, Ben Cowdock on closing dirty money loopholes.
After years of advocacy to reform Companies House, the UK Government tabled the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill in Autumn 2022. It includes many of our recommendations, such as giving Companies House powers to check the information it receives. If implemented, these changes will help end the use of UK firms for corruption and money laundering. We are now working with MPs on all sides of the house to put forward amendments to address the remaining vulnerabilities on shareholder data and opaque corporate partnerships.
The UK’s latest Economic Crime Plan was published in March 2023. We worked closely with partners including Spotlight on Corruption and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), to feed into its development. Meanwhile, we continue to work to improve the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill as it passes through Parliament. We have supported parliamentarians in tabling key amendments calling for reforms to close transparency loopholes, in addition to submitting written evidence while our Director of Policy and the Head of Advocacy gave oral evidence to parliamentary committees.
Following the money is critical to making financial sanctions bite. Those who are targeted by sanctions may have shared their wealth among family, friends and associates.
Ben Cowdock, Investigations Lead, The Guardian, May 2022.
In October 2022 we published ‘Partners in Crime’ which used data from Companies House and more than 50 corruption and money laundering cases, to set out the likely scale of abuse of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) in high-level white-collar crime to support our calls for reform.
Our analysis of nearly 147,000 LLPs incorporated between April 2001 and September 2021 revealed that 14 per cent (more than 21,000) had three or more red flags for corruption. The report is the first to expose the scale of abuse of this type of entity, with a conservative estimate putting the economic damage caused in the hundreds of billions of pounds, much of this flowing out of Russia.
Rachel Davies Teka, Director of Advocacy, giving evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.
Building transparency into public procurement has also remained a high priority. We have continued working with partners in the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition to secure improvements to the Procurement Bill to enable better scrutiny of public finances. Work is also underway to feed into the independent UK COVID-19 Inquiry following our revelation of VIP fast track lanes for the politically connected tendering for lucrative COVID-19 response contracts.
We submitted evidence to the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into contracts awarded to the testing company, Randox Laboratories. The Committee adopted a number of our recommendations in its final report on improving transparency over lobbying and strengthening safeguards against abuse of conflicts of interest.
In the last year we have participated in a number of collaborations with respected investigative media organisations to expose the corrupt still hiding in the shadows, how they operate and the UK professional services which help them. Our Russian Asset Tracker investigation – a partnership with our Russian colleagues and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and others was awarded the European Press Prize for Innovation.
After another year of political scandals, we are making headway on reforms to deliver stronger safeguards against misconduct in Westminster. Our new research revealed that over the last five years 40 potential breaches of the Ministerial Code, the rules which guide the behaviour of Ministers, had not been investigated. Using high-level advocacy combined with media collaborations, we have focused our efforts on securing changes that would make ministers and parliamentarians’ conduct more open and accountable.
The House of Commons agreed to a new code of conduct that delivers some of our long-standing calls for tighter controls on MPs’ second jobs and improved transparency over their financial interests. The updated rules came into effect in March 2023 and ban politicians from accepting cash for lobbying services – a major conflict between their public and private roles. This should help prevent the distortion of public policy in favour of vested interests and prevent further damage to public confidence in our democratic institutions. It follows our long-running campaign to reveal how many MPs hold outside roles that present serious conflicts of interest.
MPs are also considering changes that would help prevent all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) being used as a backdoor for foreign influence and clandestine corporate lobbying. Following our 2018 report In Whose Interest, we have supported these efforts for reform, and will continue to press for their adoption..
In Scotland, recent events have provided an opening for us to engage Holyrood on the need to make both the government and wider public sector more accountable. This is beginning to yield results.
Finally, after a long delay and our repeated calls, the Prime Minister finally appointed a new ethics advisor, the Independent Advisor on Ministers’ Interests, who is tasked with assisting those in government to act with probity. However, much remains to do to reform the safeguards of integrity and standards at the highest levels of government.
Recent events have demonstrated how long-standing conventions around ethical standards in public life are no longer observed as a matter of course, and provide a poor check against misconduct by those in power. This slipping of standards risks fuelling inequality, holding back our economy, and undermining responses to crises.
Daniel Bruce, Chief Executive, Reuters, June 2022.
Britain’s revolving door watchdog has proved powerless to stop former ministers and officials cashing in on the contacts they made in public service... Tighter controls on lobbying for private interests and replacing the present Advisory Board with a statutory body that can effectively police the revolving door would better protect the public from it being so abused.
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy, March 2023.
Our research highlighted the potential for former ministers and officials to take advantage of the contacts made while in public service.
Nearly a third of all new jobs taken by former ministers and senior officials had a significant overlap with their previous brief, raising serious questions over how potential conflicts of interest are managed. Data from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) which regulates movement between the public and private sector, revealed 604 post-government roles were taken up by 217 high-ranking civil servants, special advisers and ministers between January 2017 and June 2022.
Of these 604 roles, 177 (29 per cent) had an overlap with the minister’s or official’s former policy area. This overlap was most common in the defence sector, with 81 per cent of post-public roles (39 out of 48) overlapping with former officeholders’ previous briefs. We have been campaigning for tighter rules on lobbying for private interests and to create a statutory body to police the revolving door and protect the public.
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy, talking about revolving door conflict of interest.
The £280 million fine for bribery handed to commodity trading firm Glencore Energy UK Ltd at the end of 2022 clearly illustrated that grand corruption in business remains a concern. The firm was convicted of actively bribing officials in five African countries in return for preferential access to oil.
It was a glaring reminder of the links between company culture and effective compliance – the focus of a key piece of our research in the last year. Meanwhile, our Business Integrity Forum continues to expand, while reforms to economic crime legislation and unprecedented sanctions regimes have focused company attention on the importance of rigorous internal compliance.
Businesses should be on high alert when dealing with wealthy clients from places where bribery and abuse of power are rife, and report any suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency.
Rachel Davies Teka, Director of Advocacy, Daily Telegraph, July.
Our Values Added guidance explores the emerging area of values-based compliance. Many companies rely on a purely rules-based approach, using codes of conduct and procedures to curb corruption risk. However, there is growing recognition that employees must also be motivated to act ethically if compliance measures are to be effective. Our report offers insights for companies looking to enhance their anti-corruption approach by creating an ethical corporate culture.
The private sector is, of course, a key partner in implementing an effective anti-corruption framework. This year we supported the development of the government’s latest Anti-Corruption Strategy mobilising our Business Integrity Forum members to contribute their insights.
In 2023 we marked the tenth anniversary of our Business Integrity Forum which convenes UK companies committed to improving their anti-corruption measures and to driving integrity. We welcomed three new members this year. Events were led by expert speakers, including anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder, and covered topics such as whistleblowing, our annual Corruption Perceptions Index briefing, and sanctions compliance.
Our Corporate Anti-Corruption Benchmark continues to drive improvements with 47 per cent of participants seeing an increase in their score as they enhanced their anti-corruption programmes.
Our Global Anti-Bribery Guidance portal, which provides guidance on corporate anti-corruption best practice, received almost 33,000 visits from around the globe.
Our leading Doing Business Without Bribery free online training received 10,174 visits with four companies paying to customise the course for their own businesses.
Many impact investors too narrowly approach business integrity as a compliance threshold to be crossed. In this framing, business integrity matters because it helps the investor avoid negative reputational, financial, legal and regulatory consequences. However, they should not be the only goal, nor the end goal, of business integrity risk management.
Tom Shipley and Rory Donaldson, Investing with Integrity, July 2022.
Our Investing with Integrity report set out the key role investors can play in preventing corruption by linking risk management with environmental and social processes. Our research revealed that impact investors tend to focus on compliance due diligence at the pre-investment stage and when issues arise, missing opportunities for development impact.
Our report sets the agenda for impact investors to raise the bar and will be followed up with guidance on practical steps to take. We presented the findings alongside British International Investment (BII) and their partners at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in December 2022.
The risk of corruption in defence has never been greater. Global military expenditure is at an all-time high. With much of the world’s attention focused on Ukraine, a string of coups in West Africa has left a trail of instability, along with the departure of international peacekeeping forces from Mali.
Violence from terrorist groups continues to take a massive toll on the Sahel while virtually unregulated private military and security companies (PMSCs) are an increasing presence globally. This year we focused on influencing global approaches to building accountability and transparency in the sector and on reinforcing our global and national networks so that we can better share our expertise about how to effectively rein in corruption.
National security around the world is increasingly outsourced to profit-making private companies. Yet regulatory oversight is failing to keep pace, leading to risks of fraud, corruption and violence. Over the past year, Transparency International Defence and Security has been advocating for better regulation of PMSCs.
Using our new Hidden Costs research, our advocacy focused on embedding language on anti-corruption in the UN Open-Ended Inter Governmental Working Group’s (OEIGWG) development of an instrument to regulate PMSCs. This included working with the legal team drafting the instrument and participating in the informal and then formal consultation in Geneva in April 2023. Our suggestions including references to state owned enterprises, beneficial ownership transparency, the need to include whistleblowing protection systems and heightened oversight were accepted. We also worked with the US and other governments on shaping their response, resulting in the inclusion of a reference to the United Nations Convention on Corruption (UNCAC) and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) in the draft text.
Our Values Added guidance explores the emerging area of values-based compliance. Many companies rely on a purely rules-based approach, using codes of conduct and procedures to curb corruption risk. However, there is growing recognition that employees must also be motivated to act ethically if compliance measures are to be effective. Our report offers insights for companies looking to enhance their anti-corruption approach by creating an ethical corporate culture.
The private sector is, of course, a key partner in implementing an effective anti-corruption framework. This year we supported the development of the government’s latest Anti-Corruption Strategy mobilising our Business Integrity Forum members to contribute their insights.
Our work on security sector reform has continued to make an impact. We were invited to contribute to risk assessment measures and monitoring and evaluation guidelines that the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service is developing. At NATO’s Building Integrity Conference in December 2022, the UN highlighted the role of our Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) as a risk assessment and analytical tool.
We provided guidance to the US State Department on ways to improve transparency in US arms transfers and strengthen transparency language in the new US Conventional Arms Transfer policy. The US State Department has also asked us to contribute to new US arms transfer guidelines.
The U.S. Government is at risk of undermining its own Strategy on Countering Corruption by failing to ensure that U.S. arms sales do not inadvertently support corrupt actors and facilitate bribery, foreign lobbying, and money laundering.
Colby Goodman, Senior Researcher, Responsible Statecraft, February 2023.
Conflict and instability are a constant threat for people in the border regions of Niger. We worked with the country’s Transparency International chapter to create civil military committees to reduce tensions.
Conflict and instability are a constant threat for people in the border regions of Niger. We worked with the country’s Transparency International chapter to create civil military committees to reduce tensions.
Media coverage of corruption in defence and security is key to building pressure for change. We have been supporting CISLAC, the Transparency International chapter in Nigeria, to improve understanding of the risks of corruption in the sector and build momentum for transparency and accountability..
Media workshops and retreats for investigative journalists were held across the country. The result: 24 published stories on defence corruption in Nigeria on topics ranging from military commercial ventures, defence budget allocations and small arms trafficking, and five investigative reports. The project has also reinforced CISLAC’s reputation and traction with government officials.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic over in May 2023. However, it continued to dominate global health and the work of Transparency International Global Health throughout the last year.
Our focus was twofold: working to make the continued COVID-19 vaccine roll out transparent and equitable in the least well served parts of the world and to prevent corruption undermining efforts to protect the public during the next global health crisis.
With the World Health Organisation (WHO) aiming to vaccinate 70 per cent of people around the world in 2022, we continued to work with Transparency International chapters in Uganda and Zambia to prevent corruption and build transparency in the roll-out.
Our colleagues in Zambia and Uganda supported district officials, village health teams, and community organisations to tailor programmes to the population to increase uptake, monitoring the rollout for bribery attempts. Overall vaccination rates increased in 2022 in Zambia from 12 per cent to 55 per cent and in Uganda from 22 per cent to 41 per cent.
Corruption has too often been tolerated as a cost of doing business, particularly in humanitarian situations. Especially where there is a perceived trade-off between urgency and due diligence. But preventing corruption is the only way to ensure an effective and efficient response, even more so in times of emergency.
Reuben Lifuka, Vice Chair Transparency International and Peter Wandera, Executive Director Transparency International Uganda, News 24 South Africa, November 2022.
As the pandemic drew to an end, we focused on research into the critical but overlooked area of transparency and equity in the financing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to shape planning and preparations for future pandemics.
In Uganda and Zambia this included making policy recommendations to the Ministries of Health, recommending safeguards to mitigate the corruption and opacity seen during the pandemic.
Globally, we submitted evidence and policy recommendations to the German G7 presidency, and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) review of Global Architecture for Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPR), and the EU’s new Global Health strategy.
The proposed WHO Pandemic Preparedness Accord, and World Bank hosted Pandemic Fund are also key opportunities to ensure countries are better prepared. Our advocacy for greater inclusion of transparency and anti-corruption measures included a series of policy briefs and an event in Washington DC during December’s International Anti-Corruption Conference. At the time of writing, the latest draft of the Accord now recognises transparency and equity as key tenets. Some of our other recommendations for data sharing and contractual transparency have also been included.
There also need to be efforts to ensure greater procurement transparency to avoid pricing inequities and facilitate access. That means disclosure of contracting information, which we haven’t seen throughout the pandemic. It’s an incredibly opaque process.
Jonathan Cushing, Programme Director, Transparency International Global Health, Devex January 2023.
With corruption and fraud siphoning off an estimated $560 billion from health budgets globally every year, there continues to be a need to build anti-corruption, transparency and accountability measures into mechanisms to strengthen health systems.
We have been working with the WHO, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the civil society organisation U4, to initiate a commission with the UK medical journal The Lancet on corruption. We will also be playing a key role in the WHO’s new Global Network on Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability which aims to embed anti-corruption approaches into health sector policies and practices.
With high rates of bribery to access COVID-19 vaccines reported in some districts of Uganda, we worked with the country’s Transparency International chapter to put in place measures, including corruption reporting hotlines to mitigate bribery attempts.
In one instance, a caller reported being asked to pay a significant sum for a printed vaccination certificate which should have been free. The caller was told that public health facilities should not charge. Equipped with the information he returned to the health facility and raised the issue with the manager who cautioned his workers and ordered that the certificate be processed for no charge.
Fostering new global partnerships and raising the profile of our work internationally has been a key goal this year. Highlights were the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Washington DC in December 2022 and the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend in Nairobi in April 2023.
The IACC brings together global leaders, businesses, government and civil society to tackle corruption. We organised and participated in high level panels on the professional services which make it possible for dirty money to flow across borders, and on Private Military and Security Companies and Corruption.
We also held events focusing on key aspects of our global health and defence and security work. This has resulted in a collaboration with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on a webinar series over the next year raising the profile of corruption in global health.
The Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend convenes prominent African political and business leaders, representatives from civil society, global and regional institutions as well as Africa’s major international partners. Transparency International UK and Transparency International Kenya led a session showcasing the effectiveness of cross border working in creating effective solutions to illicit financial flows.
Lawsuits brought by oligarchs trying to bully journalists and authors into silence and the views of a former MI6 chief on transparency and security were just some of the topics explored by our events programme this year.
An increasingly common form of litigation used to stifle free speech known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) was the subject of our Annual Event in November 2022. Catherine Belton, the author of Putin's People, an account of the emergence of the Putin regime and the threats posed by Russian money and influence, was one of the panellists. She was subject to a terrifying campaign of litigation. The solicitor Caroline Kean who successfully defended her and the Anti-SLAPPs Campaigner Susan Coughtrie were also speakers.
The panellists talked about their experience of fighting this kind of litigation and the need for it to be banned.
Meanwhile, in a private event for some of our supporters, the former MI6 Chief Sir Alex Younger was interviewed by the Sky News Defence and Security Editor, Deborah Haynes.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, 2021-22 proved to be a busy year of engagement with key audiences for all UK and global programmes – inevitably most of this virtual. We hope to return to more in person meeting in the months ahead.
SEP ‘22
Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime
Labour Party conference: Illicit Finance Working Group event ‘Ending the UK’s Dirty Money Problem’
Labour Party conference: Institute for Government event ‘Do We Need to Rewire The System of Standards in Public Life?’
Conservative Party conference: Institute for Government ‘After the Johnson Era, How Can the Government Rebuild Trust?’
OCT ‘22
All-Party Parliamentary Group Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax and All-Party Parliamentary Group Fair Business Banking parliamentary reception.
NOV ‘22
Anthropy – Panel on COVID-19 procurement
Business Integrity Forum with Bill Browder, European Commission, NRF, the Sanctions Directorate
DEC ‘22
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Panel on Enablers
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Panel on Impact Investing
Parliamentary launch of the Lobbying for Good Lobbying campaign
MAR ‘23
UK Finance’s Economic Crime Congress on progress and challenges in bringing transparency to company beneficial ownership.
Daniel Bruce speaking at Institute for Government event at Conservative Party Conference. Photo courtesy of Institute For Government.
AUG ‘22
Arms Trade Treaty 8th Conference of States Parties in Geneva, co-hosted a side-event with Saferworld on corruption and arms exports risk assessments
OCT ‘22
Defence and Security Conference, Chatham House
UN Intergovernmental Working Group on PMSCs
NOV ‘22
Roundtable with civil society on the European Peace Facility (EPF) Safeguards, Monitoring and Human Rights organized by the Dutch Permanent Representative in the EU
DEC ‘22
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Workshop on PMSCs
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Round table on corruption and defence
APR ‘23
UN Intergovernmental Working Group on PMSCs
DEC ‘22
UN Development Progamme, Promoting integrity in the health sector in Europe and Central Asia Region
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Panel on FIF on the Fifth: Governance and Accountability of the Pandemic Fund
International Anti-Corruption Conference – Panel on Corruption: A Public Health Emergency
Joint USAID/WHO Global Network on Anti-Corruption, Accountability and Transparency (GNACTA) meeting
MAR ‘23
University of Toronto/TI Funding of Patient Organisations in the United Kingdom: A Retrospective Study of Commercial Determinants, Funding Concentration and Disease Prevalence
Swedish EU presidency Tackling Corruption as an Obstacle to Development Europe
Global Network on Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability (GNACTA) Tackling Corruption in the Health Sector
‘23/‘23
CSO dialogue sessions, COVAX ACT-A, German G7 presidency, WHO
FIF on the Fifth: Government and Accountability of the Pandemic Fund.
This year we increased our media collaborations aimed at raising awareness of the UK’s role as an enabler of corruption, reinforcing our advocacy for new laws and the closing of loopholes.
BBC News Website
The Times
The Guardian
We have supported over a dozen media partnerships. This includes a major project with The Guardian and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) cataloguing the vast wealth held outside Russia by oligarchs and those close to President Vladimir Putin – winning a major investigative journalism award. In another collaboration with Russian colleagues and the media outlets Meduza and Novaya Gazeta, we also exposed a Russian ‘bottle laundromat’ used to launder dirty money.
We achieved more than 2,000 pieces of media coverage in the last year with stories and mentions in leading outlets. These include Radio 4’s Today programme, Sky News, the Economist, an opinion piece from our Director of Policy in the Guardian and regular high-profile pieces across respected outlets like The Times, Financial Times and POLITICO. We continued to increase our visibility on broadcast outlets with regular appearances on LBC, Channel 4 News, BBC News and Talk TV. Globally we also continue to build awareness of our Global Health and Defence and Security Work with interviews in the Economist, BBC World and an opinion piece in a leading South African outlet working with colleagues in Uganda and Transparency International’s Deputy Chair.
Times Radio
Sky News
Channel 4 News
58,894 website visitors
to the UK, Defence and Security and Global Health websites.
856,618 Twitter impressions
an increase of 1.7 per cent on last year.
361,490 LinkedIn impressions
a 7.7 per cent increase on last year.
It has been said it takes a village. In our case, the last twelve months have reminded us of the power of collaboration. We are already part of the global Transparency International movement, but this year has been testament to the power of many different voices speaking in unison.
The newly formed Illicit Finance Working Group made up of like-minded UK civil society organisations from RUSI to the Joffe Trust has strengthened our advocacy and parliamentary networks in the fight for legislation against dirty money.
Meanwhile, globally our partnerships with respected investigative journalists around the world has helped us expose not just the hidden assets of the corrupt but the professional services facilitating them, providing vital information for the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Our closer working relationships with other national Transparency International chapters have also proved effective, helping to maximise global media coverage for our global health work and to showcase the dangers of corruption in defence and security.
Less positively, we were reminded of the challenge of trying to tackle a complex long-term issue like corruption, marrying that with the short time horizons of some donors. This has affected some multi-year fundraising for our programmes, encouraging us to ensure that our narrative underscores that effective systemic change takes time.
Meanwhile with the pace of technological developments, including recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, there will be new opportunities for the corrupt. It is increasingly clear that the scope of our work must address this new world if we are to tackle corruption.
We will roll out the next wave of our strategy in 2024, building on this year’s significant successes fighting dirty money and reinforcing political integrity and working to increase transparency in global health and defence and security.
To help secure greater integrity in politics and protect the public’s resource, we will continue our efforts to advance stronger safeguards against impropriety in high office, including reform of the ministerial code and greater transparency over the lobbying of government. We will seek changes that would deliver improved transparency over parliamentarians’ financial interests, and tighter controls on MPs’ second jobs. We will engage local authorities on how better to protect against impropriety in major planning decisions. We will advocate for improvements to the UK Government’s Procurement Bill as it advances through Parliament and pursue accountability over the use of public funds during the pandemic.
The corrupt are always looking for new ways to abuse power for private gain.
The new legislation that we campaigned for in the UK, described in this report, combined with the continuing high regard for our expertise in our UK, global health and defence and security work are making it harder for those trying to play the system.
However, world events have made clear much remains to be done to tackle graft and its corrosive consequences and we need your continued support to carry on the fight against corruption.
Your invaluable backing has enabled us to come this far. We hope you will continue to work with us on our journey to create a world free from corruption.
To find out details of Transparency International UK’s accounts 2022-2023, download the PDF version.
