The identification doctrine under scrutiny

An addition to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, announced last week, will bring senior managers within scope of who can be considered the ‘directing mind and will’ of a business.

Currently, the identification doctrine is interpreted as applying to members of the board, such as chief executives. Complex management structures mean prosecutors struggle to prove key decision-makers are part of the company’s ‘directing mind’.

Andrew Penhale, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the reform ‘will further enhance the tools available to prosecutors’.

Alun Milford, partner at Kingsley Napley, said the proposal was ‘potentially very significant in fraud cases.

‘However, the devil is in the detail and whether the dramatic promises made by the government will result in any successful corporate prosecutions for economic crime will depend to a very large extent on how exactly a “senior manager” is defined in the new law.’