By Dan Hough
The UK has scored its highest ever ranking on the Corruption Perception Index, and businesses should be worried, writes Dan Hough
Today Transparency International (TI), the world’s leading anti-corruption NGO, publishes its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). It made chastening news for the UK, which received its lowest ever ranking.
The CPI has become a regular part of the anti-corruption news cycle. Every year it reveals which countries are perceived to be doing better and which are believed to be doing worse in tackling public sector corruption. TI uses a range of data to generate a score of between 0-100 for each territory. The nearer to 100, the better the country is perceived to be doing in the fight against malfeasance.
In the grand scheme of things, the UK doesn’t appear to be doing too badly. In 2023 Denmark (90) came top of the pile, with Finland (87) and New Zealand (85) close behind. In 2023 Britain came in with 73, putting it on a par with France, Austria and the Seychelles and a long way ahead of the likes of Somalia (11), Syria, Venezuela and South Sudan (all 13).
That, however, is about as good as the news gets. The UK is now outside the top 20. In effect, it’s been relegated from the Premier League of anti-corruption countries. The reason for that centres on the UK’s score being the lowest it has ever recorded. Over the last five years the UK’s total has dropped six points, two of which have been lost over the last 12 months.
Critics of the CPI are quick to point out the index’s weaknesses. It’s a perception-based survey and perceptions can of course sometimes be wrong. There’s also room to be sceptical about giving entities as big and complex as nation-states one single number out of 100. In 2023, for example, China (population 1.4bn) and Moldova (population 2.6m) both ended up on 42. Quite how countries as different as they are end up on the same score is something that’s not lost on the CPI’s critics.
Developing criticisms of the CPI’s methodology is subsequently something that has kept corruption-watchers occupied for many years. Still, that shouldn’t deflect from the key message that comes not just out of this year’s index but also out of all other similar indexes; the UK is going backwards and urgently needs to snap out of its anti-corruption malaise.
Why is that? On the one hand the steady stream of lobbying scandals does little to give an impression of probity. Regular stories of jobs (and contracts) for the boys (and girls) have left an unedifying impression of who gets what and why in British politics. That’s become even more obvious as details of contract-awarding during the worst of the Covid era become apparent.
On the other hand, the fact that the government has been unable to appoint an anti-corruption champion is also revealing. The last one left 18 months ago and still hasn’t been replaced. Rishi Sunak came into power claiming that integrity and maintaining public standards would be central to all he did. In practice, he’s been unable or unwilling to appoint anyone to genuinely take that agenda forward.
Should that worry the business community? Yes. If it is not clear that the government is always going to play by the rules of the game then the environment in which business works gradually becomes more unpredictable. And with that unpredictability come costs, both financial and practical.
Fighting corruption and tackling breaches of integrity appear to be warm weather pastimes that the government just isn’t interested in pursuing when the weather is more challenging.
The UK currently faces many challenges. As things stand, fighting corruption is becoming an ever more serious one.
Dan Hough is professor of politics at the University of Sussex
