New test will 'significantly strengthen SFO's arsenal' against corporate economic crime

Amendment to Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill expands scope to include senior managers, not just directors

Partner Sam Tate, Head of the White Collar Crime team at international law firm RPC, said:

"The Government's proposed new statutory test in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will have a significant impact on large organisations with complex management structures, largely because it appears that individual actors would no longer need to have oversight of the entire organisation for their actions to be attributable to the company.  

"The scope of the test has been expanded to include senior managers, not just directors.  

"Previously, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has struggled to prosecute large corporates due to the high bar imposed by the existing "directing mind and will" test.  This is finally being swept aside and will be replaced by a statutory test with a much broader scope and one that will significantly strengthen the SFO's arsenal in the pursuit of corporate economic crime.

"While we would not expect this reform to have an immediate impact on the prosecution of corporates as it is not expected to apply retrospectively, we do anticipate the number of corporate prosecutions to increase over the coming years as a result, if this reform comes into law."