Gifts report form

Use our gifts report form to give your employees an easy way to declare the receipt of gifts from clients, suppliers, etc. It’s then up to you to decide whether the gift is reasonable or whether it’s too lavish and therefore could potentially result in their being bribed contrary to the Bribery Act 2010.

Reasonable gifts

The giving and receiving of gifts isn’t prohibited under the Bribery Act 2010, provided they’re proportionate and reasonable given the sort of business you do. The issue therefore is not with minor tokens of appreciation being given to your employees by satisfied clients, but the possibility of clients, customers, contractors and suppliers sending substantial gifts to your staff with the possible intention of inducing them to take improper business decisions. These could constitute bribes. Thus, allowing these types of gifts to be accepted may mean your employee is guilty of receiving a bribe if they then intend that, in consequence, the business decision will be taken improperly or a business-related activity will be performed improperly. Our Gifts from Clients/Suppliers Policy provides for all gifts (except small promotional gifts) to be declared by your employees and then for you to take the decision on whether the gift constitutes a small token of appreciation or whether it has a substantial financial value, i.e. whether it’s lavish, extraordinary or excessive, in which case it should be returned to sender in order to avoid any bribery allegation.

Reporting requirement

To assist with the declaration of gifts, ask your employees to use our Gifts Report Form. This should be completed and signed by the employee as soon as they receive the gift and then returned to their manager for assessment under the terms of your policy. It asks the employee to provide details of the nature of the gift and its estimated value, the date of receipt, the identity of the sender and whether the gift was sent for a special occasion, such as Christmas. Gifts sent specifically for special occasions are less likely to have been sent to influence a particular business decision. There are no hard and fast rules about what value is reasonable and what is not, so it’s not as simple as saying that gifts under, say, £250 are reasonable and can be kept but gifts over this amount are lavish and must be returned. It’s really for you to set the gift in the context of your business and why it was given and to take a decision on whether you genuinely think it’s a bribe not.