City AM quotes Rhys Novak on the upcoming “failure to prevent fraud” offence in the UK
Large organisations across England and Wales need to finalise preparations for a new fraud prevention law that comes into force on 1 September 2025.
The reminder comes as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have published joint updated guidance for prosecutors around dealing with corporate prosecutions.
Rhys Novak, Dispute Resolution Partner, comments for City AM on the upcoming offence:
There will be a sea change in many organisations from only thinking about stopping frauds from external parties aimed at damaging the organisation, to also stopping frauds by employees, agents and others that may benefit the business.
"Time is now short but there are some important things that can be done between now and 1 September including undertaking a risk assessment and putting in place some of the low hanging fruit like an overarching policy. Work can continue on procedures.
"Many people are comparing the guidance to the Bribery Act guidance released years back, but it’s hard to compare, as bribery is easier to define and understand, whereas fraud isn’t. Fraud for these purposes is any number of things, it’s almost unlimited in scope, whereas bribery is an easier concept to understand. So, any suggestion that companies can just roll out similar policies to their UK Bribery Act policies is going to be misplaced. Because the scope and meaning of the base fraud offences are so wide, this guidance couldn’t do anything more than provide a structure and signposts, almost a checklist, about what companies need to be thinking about when they approach these procedures.
