Photo of Thomas Hubbard (UK)

Thomas Hubbard (UK)

On 6 November 2024 the UK government published its long-awaited guidance (the Guidance)  on the new offence of failure to prevent fraud (here) and confirmed the offence will be in force from 1 September 2025.

Under the new offence an organisation (whether or not it is a UK organisation) may be criminally

The UK government has today published its long-awaited guidance to organisations on the new offence of failure to prevent fraud (here) and confirmed the offence will be in force from 1 September 2025.

Under the new offence an organisation (whether or not it is a UK organisation) may be criminally liable where an

The new failure to prevent fraud offence is due to come into force during 2025. In broad terms, in respect of the financial services community, it will mean that regulated firms of a certain size could be at risk in the event that fraud is committed for their benefit or the benefit of their clients

This is the third article in our series breaking down the steps that organisations will need to take to put in place “reasonable procedures” to prevent fraud. Our previous posts, focusing on how to conduct effective fraud risk assessments and enhance polices and procedures, can be found here and here

The new UK failure

The government have confirmed that the guidance in relation to what constitutes ‘reasonable procedures’ for the prevention of fraud is likely to be published in ‘early summer’, meaning that the new Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence would come into force by the end of the year.

See here for our article summarising the new offence

The SFO has published its 5-year strategy document (the Strategy Document), highlighting a number of areas of focus, from international coordination with counterparts to capitalising on technology and incentivising their workforce.

This follows Director of the SFO, Nick Ephgrave’s, speech in February 2024 setting out key priorities (see our recent Investigations and Enforcement horizon

On Tuesday 16 April 2024, please join us for a webinar where our team from across EMEA will discuss the key recent and upcoming trends in financial crime legislation and regulatory enforcement in the EU, UK and Singapore.

This webinar will highlight important changes to anti-money laundering regulation and wider financial crime legislation in the

  1. a focus from organisations on fraud, in particular

Following the enactment of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) last month, the UK Government has proposed in the Criminal Justice Bill (CJB) (here) to extend the scope of corporate liability for senior managers beyond certain economic offences to all UK criminal offences.

Reform of economic