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Another bad idea

29 July 2010 / Peter Binning
Issue: 7428 / Categories: Opinion , Criminal
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The government is intent on creating a new “super agency” to tackle the perceived shortcomings of the current multi-agency system for investigating and prosecuting fraud and related commercial crime.

The CPS, not drastic change, is the solution for tackling business crime,
says Peter Binning

The government is intent on creating a new “super agency” to tackle the perceived shortcomings of the current multi-agency system for investigating and prosecuting fraud and related commercial crime. The proposed new Economic Crime Agency is a wrongheaded approach. Instead what is needed is a selective and innovative set of amendments to current laws on plea bargaining and sentencing for business crime.

The existing organisations should be expanded where possible rather than creating a new body. The redundant ones can be shut down. Any new agency would require huge investment in people and resources and there would be inevitable delay in forging a new identity and statutory framework. What is needed is a reliable and stable organisation backed by practical legal powers. Why not develop the now quarter century old Crown

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Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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