The head of the multinational arms company BAE Systems has provoked criticism with a dismissive comment about the Haddon-Cave Report into the deaths of 14 members of the UK armed forces in a Nimrod aircraft.

Dick Olver, head of the multinational arms company BAE Systems, will focus on ethics when delivering the Mountbatten Memorial Lecture next week. The news has been met with a mixture of derision and outrage.

The arms trade is undermining democracy in countries around the globe, according to Andrew Feinstein, a former MP in South Africa, who was nicknamed “Mr Clean” by the media for his determination to investigate corruption.

The close relationship between arms companies and the UK government is again under scrutiny following a damning report into the crash of a Nimrod aircraft in Afghanistan in 2006 , which caused the deaths of 14 people.

The South African politician Andrew Feinstein, well-known for his struggles against corruption and the arms industry, has been announced as the key speaker at a major gathering of anti-arms trade activists in the UK later this month.

The news that BAE will be prosecuted shouldn't be such a surprise. In a fair world, it would be normal. But fairness is not a quality that has ever applied to BAE, a company that has spent years using its influence to avoid facing justice.

The arms company BAE Systems will be charged with corruption after years of allegations and controversy. The Serious Fraud Office has asked the attorney-general to initiate prosecution on charges of multimillion pound bribery.