UKEF seeks to stimulate UK exports over the next three years. International trade minister Greg Hands says that corporate compliance also remains a focus.

Stimulating UK exports

The UK's export-finance body's 2016/17 results show that it has increased financing for UK exports by 60 per cent in the past year, while it also plans to continue the increased support in its 2017-2020 business plan.

UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK government export credit agency and government department providing finance and insurance to UK exporters, provided £3 billion of support during 2016-2017 – a 60 per cent increase on the previous 12-month period. The UKEF directly supported 221 UK exporters during 2016-2017 and the majority (79 per cent) of the companies benefiting from this support were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). UKEF also lent a record £305 million directly to infrastructure and energy projects.

Focus on compliance

UKEF's government representative, international trade minister Greg Hands, MP, recently told Global Trade Review magazine that the department also works with international firms to ensure compliance and that robust anti-corruption models are in place. He cited cases involving Rolls Royce, Carillion and Airbus.

Following a four-year investigation into bribery and corruption at Rolls Royce by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the engineering company received an indictment covering 12 counts of conspiracy to corrupt, false accounting and failure to prevent bribery. The misconduct took place over three decades and was carried out by individuals in the company's civil aerospace and defence aerospace divisions, as well as its former energy business. In January this year, the SFO entered into what it termed a “significant” deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Rolls Royce, allowing the company to avoid the full consequences of a criminal conviction if it complies with certain agreed terms and conditions.

SFO successful investigation

In any case, the company was ordered to pay £497.25m plus interest and the SFO’s costs of £13m. This was the largest ever single investigation carried out by the SFO.

Hands told GTReview that the UKEF has been working closely with Rolls Royce's senior management to understand what went wrong in this case. He said: “A particular focus has been the company’s compliance processes and the improvements to those processes that it has implemented since these issues came to light.”

He added that the company has now made significant changes to its governance models and made changes to its senior management team. He added: “We will continue to monitor Rolls-Royce’s progress around compliance over time and will of course scrutinise each transaction we consider going forward, including seeking specific assurances from senior management, to make sure that we can provide support with confidence.”