The UK government has today published its long-awaited guidance to organisations on the new offence of failure to prevent fraud (here) and confirmed the offence will be in force from 1 September 2025.
Under the new offence an organisation (whether or not it is a UK organisation) may be criminally liable where an employee, agent, subsidiary, or other "associated person", commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation, where that fraud has a UK nexus, and the organisation did not have reasonable fraud prevention procedures in place.
This new offence is a hugely significant development and is intended to have a similar impact to the UK Bribery Act 2010, both in terms of driving changes in compliance and culture and in leading to deferred prosecution agreements and prosecutions.
The guidance covers both the elements of the offence itself and importantly advice on what constitutes reasonable fraud prevention procedures.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
