Introduction to ECCTA – A new regime for corporate criminal liability & compliance

The UK’s Failure to Prevent Fraud offence will come into force on 1 September 2025.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) introduced the organisational “failure to prevent” criminal offence, along with a reasonable procedures defence. Government guidance has been published on the steps that businesses should take if they are to have reasonable procedures. UK Finance has also published sector guidance.

The reasonable procedures defence will follow six principles of compliance. To help businesses prepare for the new offence we are hosting a series of succinct webinars covering the law and the six principles.

This webinar will cover:

• the new senior manager test for corporate criminal liability for fraud and other offences

• the new secondary corporate failure to prevent fraud offences – application, jurisdiction, offences covered
• the defence of reasonable procedures – the statutory test and the similarities and differences with adequate procedures under the Bribery Act 2010