When a politician or civil servant takes a bribe we call it corruption.

Corruption is also when the political elite steal from the state. It means the state can’t train nurses or teachers. Nor can it pay judges properly, so the corrupt get away with it.

When corrupt doctors steal medicines from state hospitals and sell them privately, poor people are paying for treatment that should be free. If they can’t afford it, they do without.

Goods, people and money move around the world more than ever before. But too often public money finds its way into private bank accounts. Britain has pledged to:

• Make sure that aid is used for the purposes it is meant for;
• Help developing countries fight corruption;
• Promote responsible business; and
• Close the international loopholes that allow people to launder stolen money.

On top of that, the UK Government has set up special police units to investigate foreign bribery and money laundering.

Corruption is wrong and it hits the poor hardest.

• Find out more about the agreements we made, at the G8 conference, on tackling corruption.
• Read the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which the world's richest nations have agreed to implement.