Fraud: what next?

With fraud estimated to be costing the UK around £130bn each year and constituting approximately 40% of crimes committed in England and Wales, the government will be exploring innovative options to address the problem. A new economic crime plan will probably be published by the Home Office in the coming months.

Corporate fraud

The immediate future in the fight against corporate fraud is not difficult to predict. The new corporate ‘failing to prevent fraud’ offence in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 will come into force in the coming months, alongside an expansion of corporate criminal liability where a senior manager commits an economic crime offence within the scope of their actual and apparent authority. The change does not replace or amend the common law identification doctrine, but instead provides a new statutory route to corporate liability for specific offences. As these measures are