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14 November 2025
Issue: 8139 / Categories: Legal News , Commercial , Criminal , Fraud , Liability , Bribery , Company , Compliance , Risk management
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NLJ this week: Corporate crime net widens

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The Crime and Policing Bill could vastly expand corporate criminal liability through its new ‘senior manager test’, warns Tom McNeill of BCL Solicitors in NLJ this week. The sweeping test makes organisations criminally liable for offences committed by senior managers within their authority

The reform, McNeill argues, shifts corporate criminal law further towards deterrence and away from fairness or direct culpability. The test extends liability even where the company gains no benefit and lacks a 'reasonable procedures' defence.

McNeill traces the evolution from Tesco v Nattrass to today’s 'failure to prevent' model, showing how criminal fault has been replaced by assumptions of defective corporate culture. He warns that treating organisations as moral actors risks punishing compliant companies for rogue conduct.

While aimed at accountability, the new regime, he concludes, prioritises ease of prosecution over principled justice.

Issue: 8139 / Categories: Legal News , Commercial , Criminal , Fraud , Liability , Bribery , Company , Compliance , Risk management
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