Assessing the evidence base of domestic corruption in the UK

Product Description

In December 2017, the UK government published its Anti-Corruption Strategy, which established a long-term framework to guide its efforts to tackle corruption at home and abroad in the period up to 2022. The strategy sets out different areas of focus and high-risk sectors such as the global business community, borders and ports, the financial sector, and public procurement and grants. The UK is ranked at number 8 of 180 countries on the 2017 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), indicating a low level of perceived domestic corruption in the UK public sector. While, and perhaps because corruption in the UK is not perceived to be as widespread compared to some other jurisdictions; the existing evidence base on domestic corruption and its effects on specific sectors is limited.

In this 2018 Home Office-commissioned study, RAND Europe evaluates the existing evidence on domestic corruption in the UK and proposes potential research opportunities that could help address gaps in the evidence emerging from this evaluation. This study was carried out in 3 phases:
1. A rapid evidence assessment (REA) of existing literature on the topic of domestic corruption in the UK.
2. Key informant interviews and an expert workshop to validate the findings of the REA and to obtain insights from leading policy experts and academics.
3. Four sector-specific focus groups that brought together practitioners from law enforcement, defence, construction and finance and property sectors, which were assessed to be particularly vulnerable to corruption risk on the basis of the REA and expert engagement.

In addition to systematically assessing existing evidence on domestic corruption in the UK, this study also includes views of policy and academic experts, previously under-researched primary data and analysis of detail on manifestations of corruption in multiple sectors, and the mapping of areas of risk and factors that may lead to corruption.