United Kingdom

Topic: Anti-corruption and business and human rights

Subscribe to Anti-corruption and business and human rights RSS feed

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill: update

Background  On 4 September 2023, the UK House of Commons debated the House of Lords’ amendments to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill). The House of Commons voted to include an exemption for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and remove the extension of the proposed offence to failure to prevent money laundering. … Continue Reading

UK CPS, HMRC and NCA show their teeth on the Bribery Act

Three recent cases act as a reminder that the CPS, HMRC and NCA, as well as the SFO, are actively enforcing the UK Bribery Act and conducting cross-border investigations. Two of the cases summarised below also show a focus on the demand side of bribery (i.e. suspected offences of individuals receiving or requesting a bribe … Continue Reading

New EU Anti-Corruption Framework: what does this mean for multinationals and their compliance programmes?

Summary As part of a new anti-corruption package announced on 3 May 2023, the European Commission has proposed a new directive (Directive) which, if implemented, would require EU member states (Member States) to meet common standards in their anti-corruption legislation. More detail on the EU’s anti-corruption package, including the proposed new rules, an overview of … Continue Reading

Proposed enhancements to corporate reporting obligations: material fraud reporting

On 19 July 2023, the UK government published proposed significant amendments to the Companies Act 2006, which would impose greater reporting requirements on large companies, including a requirement to report on material fraud. Coupled with the new failure to prevent fraud offence which we expect to come into force next year (see more here) and … Continue Reading

Failure to prevent money laundering: a proposed new offence?

The UK Parliament is in the process of debating the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill), which is expected to be finalised by the end of the year and come into force during 2024. There has been much discussion of the new failure to prevent fraud offence (for more detail see our article … Continue Reading

UK fraud strategy: loud bark, little bite?

The UK government recently published its fraud strategy paper: Fraud Strategy: Stopping Scams and Protecting the Public. The prevalence of fraud in the UK cannot be overstated: victims of fraud reported losing £2.35 billion in 2021 and recent research estimates fraud losses in 2021 equate to some £137 billion. The new fraud strategy has three … Continue Reading

Proposed UK failure to prevent fraud offence: What do you need to do now?

Updated Friday 8 September 2023 The UK Government intends to introduce a new “failure to prevent fraud” offence as an amendment to its Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill). On 11 April 2023, the Home Office published a fact sheet (which was updated on 20 June 2023) and tabled an amendment to introduce the failure to prevent … Continue Reading

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill – an attempt to reduce economic and financial crime

On Friday 25 November 2022, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill) entered Parliament. The Committee Stage (Commons) was brought to a conclusion on Tuesday 29 November 2022. The Bill, as amended by the Public Bill Committee, was published on 30 November 2022. The Bill proposes various reforms designed to reduce economic and … Continue Reading

Landmark US-UK Data Access Agreement Enters into Force

On 3 October 2022, the Data Access Agreement (DAA) between the UK and US (see our earlier blog here) came into force.  In this blog post we look at this landmark agreement and consider its impact. What is the US-UK Data Access Agreement? Under the new agreement, on receipt of a qualifying lawful order telecommunication … Continue Reading

The new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill: its plans to reform Companies House and improve policing of cryptoassets

In this post, we summarise the new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill) which was published on 22 September 2022 and the significant reform proposed to the role of Companies House. The Bill proposes giving Companies House improved investigation and enforcement powers and makes changes to strengthen regulators’ powers to seize and detain … Continue Reading

The New Economic Crime Bill and plans to expand the Serious Fraud Office’s investigative Powers

In recent years, the UK government has been seeking to tackle ever-growing financial crime and money laundering. In this post, we summarise the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill) published on 22 September 2022 as well the expansion of the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) investigative powers under the Bill in an effort to … Continue Reading

Current trends in UK litigation and investigations for financial institutions

In this post, we summarise emerging litigation and investigations trends and their practical implications for financial institutions (FIs). Litigation Litigation trends are largely dependent on social and political changes and we continue to see the impact of the global pandemic and the related financial downturn on emerging litigation trends. Civil fraud claims 2022 has seen … Continue Reading

Managing emerging bribery risks for financial institutions

Despite financial institutions in the UK and many other jurisdictions being required to have in place sophisticated bribery and corruption (ABC) systems and controls, there has been a recent increase in the number of major ABC enforcement actions involving financial institutions, as well as a significant uptick in civil disputes alleging bribery. Looking ahead, as … Continue Reading

Transparency International Report provides guidance on implementing a values-based ABC compliance programme

Transparency International has published its 2022 Values Added Report, which provides useful pointers on the practical steps companies can take to enhance their ABC frameworks by incorporating a values-based approach. The Report’s recommendations are consistent with the broader shift away from a purely rules-based compliance approach, towards a model in which employees are empowered to … Continue Reading

U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption: Key points for international companies

On 6 December 2021, the Biden Administration released its strategy on countering corruption (the Strategy) along with an accompanying fact sheet, building on President Biden’s earlier announcement that he viewed the fight against corruption as one of the core U.S. national security priorities.  The five-point strategy places particular focus on a coordinated international approach to … Continue Reading

ABC Compliance Survey 2021: five key areas to consider enhancements

Since the UK Bribery Act 2010 came into force in July 2011, standards and scope of anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) compliance programmes have evolved significantly in many jurisdictions. Norton Rose Fulbright recently carried out a global survey to assess how companies’ ABC compliance programmes compare against current global best practice expectations, as documented in guidance … Continue Reading

UK vs US Enforcement Approaches: A comparison

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have recently reiterated their focus on fighting corporate crime (see here and here our more detailed articles on these developments). In particular, the US authorities have: renewed their focus on holding individuals accountable for corporate crime (as well as companies); committed to … Continue Reading

NCA: Bribery and corruption risk to rise

On 25 May 2021, the National Crime Agency (NCA) published its national strategic assessment of serious and organised crime. Compared to 2020, the NCA concludes that the threat to the UK in respect of bribery and corruption has increased dramatically. Reasons for this include both the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. Key takeaways from the report … Continue Reading

UK FRC enhances fraud-spotting standards for auditors

On 27 May 2021, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published a revised version of its auditing standard on the responsibilities of auditors in relation to fraud. The revisions set out more stringent requirements to identify and assess the risk of material misstatement because of fraud and the procedures to respond to those risks. Such amendments … Continue Reading

EBA consults on draft guidelines on cooperation and information exchange between prudential supervisors, AML/CFT supervisors and financial intelligence units under the CRD IV

On 27 May 2021, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a consultation paper regarding draft guidelines that set out how prudential supervisors, AML/CFT supervisors and financial intelligence units should cooperate and exchange information in relation to AML/CFT, in line with Article 117(5) of the CRD IV. The draft guidelines set out general provisions and practical … Continue Reading

Making it count: Transparency International’s key recommendations on measuring the effectiveness of an ABC compliance programme

On 4 May 2021, Transparency International published its “Making it count” report on measuring the effectiveness of anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) programmes (the TI Report). Authorities globally are focused on the practical effectiveness of companies’ ABC programmes. As the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Resource Guide puts it, authorities’ primary … Continue Reading

Coalition for Integrity report: AI a useful tool in ABC compliance for larger organisations

The Coalition for Integrity has published a report summarising how machine learning (or AI) can be used in anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) compliance programmes (the Report). The Report provides companies with key points to consider in determining whether (and if so how) they should consider developing or using machine learning solutions for their ABC programmes. … Continue Reading

SFO publishes Serco Statement of Facts

On 28 April 2021, the SFO published the statement of facts relating to the DPA that it agreed with Serco Geografix Limited (SGL) back in July 2019. The publication was made possible as a result of the ending of the trial of two former Serco directors, which collapsed this week as a result of issues … Continue Reading

UK launches new anti-corruption sanctions regime

On 26 April 2021, the UK government announced a number of designations under its new global anti-corruption sanctions regime, which is designed to stop “those involved in serious corruption from entering and channelling money through the UK” (see press release). Under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021 (SI 2021 No. 488) the UK government has … Continue Reading
LexBlog