1.6. Duty not to accept benefits from third parties (section 176): 1 October 2008
A director must not accept any benefit (including a bribe) from a third party which is conferred because of his being a director or his doing or not doing anything as a director.
The duty will not be infringed if the acceptance of the benefit cannot reasonably be regarded as likely to give rise to a conflict of interest. Benefits conferred by the company, its holding company or subsidiaries, and benefits received from a person who provides the director's services to the company, are excluded.
A company can authorise the acceptance of benefits and so you may wish to consider amending the constitution of your company to provide that where directors accept benefits under a specified value, they will not be in breach of their duty to the company, for example to ensure that the acceptance of a certain level of corporate hospitality will not cause a director to breach the section.
The duty will continue to apply even after you have ceased to be a director in relation to things done or omitted by you while you were a director.
If you have any question on any of those matters, or on any of the matters covered below, whether now or in the future, you should contact David Heys at Lawson-West on 0116 212 1027 or by email at dheys@lawson-west.co.uk.
