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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

Slater Heelis—Chester office

Slater Heelis—Chester office

North West presence strengthened with Chester office launch

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Firm grows commercial disputes expertise with partner promotion

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

NEWS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) must overhaul its complaints and risk assessment processes to fix ‘systemic shortcomings’, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said
The opt-out collective actions regime is facing ‘significant challenges’ but could benefit the UK by £24bn a year if enhanced and expanded, a report by Stephenson Harwood has found
Ministers have rejected the Justice Committee review’s key recommendation for the ailing county court system—an ‘urgent and comprehensive’ review by spring at the latest
Firms preparing to mount Mazur applications alleging the other side has acted in breach of the Legal Services Act 2007 may be left disappointed, the Law Society has said
The first Post Office Capture conviction—the accounting software used before the faulty Horizon system—has been referred for appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
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