The British Council supports peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries.
The British Council has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards fraud, bribery and corruption. We will always investigate and seek to take disciplinary and/or legal action against those who commit, attempt to commit, or assist anyone committing fraud or any other improper activities in our global operations.
The British Council is committed to:
- maintaining its leadership commitment and anti-fraud culture across the organisation
- minimising the opportunities for fraud, bribery and corruption
- having effective policies, procedures systems and controls in place to enable the prevention and detection of fraud, corruption and bribery
- ensuring that its staff, contractors and partners are aware of the risks of fraud, bribery and corruption and understand their obligations to report any actual or suspected incidents of fraud, bribery or corruption
- providing appropriate channels for reporting concerns and suspicious activity in confidence, without fear of reprisal
- taking all reports of fraud, bribery and corruption seriously, and investigating them proportionately and appropriately
- meeting its legal and ethical obligations and reporting any incidents of fraud, bribery and corruption to appropriate external authorities.
We will provide adequate and appropriate resources to implement this global policy statement and will ensure it is communicated and understood.
The British Council will review this global policy statement annually to reflect new legal and regulatory developments and ensure good practice.
This global policy statement was approved by Scott McDonald, Chief Executive, in April 2026 and is due for review in March 2027.