The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act was passed in October 2023. It makes significant changes to the law which impact all corporations and partnerships. 

There are two key new corporate offences: a new 'failure to prevent fraud' offence (for large organisations) and a widening of corporate criminal liability for economic crimes committed by senior managers (which applies to all corporations and partnerships regardless of size). Both new offences have extra-territorial effect. 

The focus of these changes is to make it easier for businesses to be prosecuted and held liable for the acts of senior managers within their organisation. Fraud continues to be high on the legislative agenda, driven by the government's Fraud Strategy which aims to reduce fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by December 2024.

We continue to monitor the developments in this area and below is a series of articles we have written on this subject. 

For more information on how these offences will affect your business, get in touch.