With the UK’s new corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent fraud coming into force on 1 September, firms that are not fully prepared for the new regime are running out of time to get their house in order.
The offence, introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, marks a major shift in corporate accountability, placing legal responsibility on organisations that fail to prevent fraud committed by ‘associated persons’ for their benefit – unless they can demonstrate they had reasonable procedures in place.
At Enterprise GC earlier this year, general counsel and other in-house lawyers tackled this subject in a breakout session led by Grant Thornton, and in this Legal Business podcast, financial crime head Tom Townson and business risk director Emma Young reflect on what came out of those discussions, and how businesses are navigating the countdown to compliance.
While some companies, particularly those in heavily regulated sectors, are ahead of the game with their preparations, others still have work to do – and as Townson warns: ‘you don’t want to be the test case for this offence.’
The full discussion is below – the podcast is also available via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
