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NLJ this week: It’s ambitious, but will it be effective? Analysing ECCTA 2023

08 March 2024
Issue: 8062 / Categories: Legal News , Commercial , Fraud , Criminal
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Performative law-making or a driver for real change? The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 is dissected and examined in this week’s NLJ by Tom Forster KC and Katie Bacon

Forster and Bacon, both of Red Lion Chambers, take an in-depth look at the ‘ambitious’ Act, which extends criminal liability for corporates and creates a ‘failure to prevent’ fraud duty for large organisations, and much more. They set out the background to the Act, discuss its scope and consider how effective it will be in practice. Fraud is a major issue, accounting for about 60% of crime, according to the Office for National Statistics. The National Crime Agency has estimated more than £100bn may be being laundered through the UK every year.

Will the Act work? More resources may be needed. Forster and Bacon assert the Act’s measures ‘represent powerful tools’ but call for the investigative and prosecution agencies to be properly resourced ‘so as to provide a clear and credible enforcement threat’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
Is a suspect’s state of mind a ‘fact’ capable of triggering adverse inferences? Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Smith of Corker Binning examines how R v Leslie reshapes the debate
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
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