Stephen Baker considers the implications of BAE’s decision to appoint Lord Woolf to head up its ethics committee
It may be thought that things have to get pretty desperate before a company hires not lawyers, but a whole judge, to try and salvage its reputation.
Earlier this month we learned that BAE Systems has appointed former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf to chair a new independent ethics committee. The committee will review BAE’s current and future policies for compliance with anti-corruption laws and conventions. Though it is unclear precisely what Lord Woolf’s team will be doing, it is understood he will not be encouraged to reopen the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO’s) abandoned inquiry into alleged Saudi bribes.
ensuring independence
BAE has gone further than any other major company. Many companies, particularly in the US, have internal ethics committees, and publish annual in-house reports on their compliance with ethical standards. Some appoint well-known figures to their boards to ensure, or at least give the impression, that someone independent is keeping an eye on their behaviour. It is presumably so that independence could be ensured
