The UK government has published its 2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy, directing its efforts towards mitigating corruption across the region and supporting enforcement.
This strategy enables the government to implement its plans to prevent corruption both within the UK and internationally. The 2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy further builds on the 2017 to 2022 strategy and echoes the evolving nature of the threats brought on by corruption to the country’s economy, security, and democracy.
Countering corruption from 2025 onwards
With this strategy, the government seeks to solidify enforcement, support businesses in detecting and preventing corruption, mitigate sectoral limitations, scale transparency, and ensure that the UK strengthen its position in anti-corruption across the globe.
Encompassing 123 commitments, the UK’s strategy focuses on:
- Combating corrupt actors and their funds in the UK and abroad;
- Mitigating vulnerabilities to corruption in the UK;
- Developing global resilience to corruption;
- Simplifying how organisations report potential corruption, including by incentivising whistleblowers;
- Building an advanced evidence base on the use of beneficial ownership data to facilitate transparency;
- Rolling out AI solutions for the detection of corruption and related activities.
A critical step in achieving these objectives is effective implementation, with the UK government aiming to centre its efforts on evidence, oversight, and transparency. If successful, the UK will restore trust through high standards and safeguarding against exploitation by corrupt actors, public sector bodies will address corruption effectively, and all British businesses will operate with integrity in the country and abroad, among others.
Furthermore, to assist in its commitments, the UK government will work with several partners. Mentioning just a part of them, these include the Home Office (HO), the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), HM Treasury (HMT), the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA).
In 2026, the UK government intends to publish two other strategies, including the Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy, set to be released one Economic Crime Plan 2 has concluded, and the Fraud Strategy.
