New Approach to Corporate Criminal Liability & New Offence of Failure to Prevent Fraud

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, and includes two reforms that will materially affect corporates’ risk profile by increasing their exposure to criminal liability: 

1. a new “failure to prevent fraud” offence; and 
2. a change in the approach to attributing criminal liability to corporates for economic crimes.  

The latter of these changes comes into force on 26 December 2023, and organisations of all sizes will wish to begin to consider relevant arrangements and risks immediately.

Our attached legal update summarises some of the key elements of this new law and the related issues businesses will wish to consider.

If you would like to discuss the implications of these developments and the steps your business might take to mitigate the consequent risks, please contact Guy Bastable, Andrew Matheson or Sam Aldous in Burges Salmon’s Corporate Crime & Investigations team.

Organisations of all sizes will wish to begin to consider relevant arrangements and risks immediately.