Proposals to widen the scope of corporate criminal liability are still on the agenda, the government has insisted in its latest strategy for tackling economic crime. The three-year plan published today states that the government will build on the ‘strongest options’ presented by the Law Commission last June. This would include legislation on the ‘identification doctrine’ to enable large corporations to be prosecuted.
Other pledges in the Economic Crime Plan 2 include measures to make the disclosure process more manageable in this digital age. The government will explore options for both ‘legislative and non-legislative reforms’. Further details will be set out in the upcoming Fraud Strategy.
On money laundering, the plan states that the National Economic Crime Centre ‘will work to understand the threat of professional enablers through an improved intelligence picture and increase investigative capacity, working in collaboration with the public and private sectors’.
Meanwhile a new ‘multi-agency cell’ will tackle the crimes involving cryptoassets. Illicit cryptoasset transactions linked to the UK were officially valued at £1.24bn in 2021 – though the plan states there is ‘a realistic possibility’ that the figure is significantly higher.
A new ‘public-private economic crime data strategy’ will improve the flows of information and intelligence between public bodies and regulated sector organisations. It will also ‘identify and address obstacles to international information sharing’.
The Law Society was one of seven legal professional bodies supporting the plan. Society president Lubna Shuja said: ‘Solicitors continue to play an important role in the public-private partnership in tackling economic crime. We look forward to continuing our work with the government to deliver the plan through a new approach to public-private prioritisation.’
Some commentators however questioned how the plan would work in practice. Alun Milford, criminal litigation partner at London firm Kingsley Napley, said: ‘The emphasis seems to be on gathering intelligence and training investigators. But it is not clear how those new investigators will use the improved intelligence picture they will be given.’
Merely disrupting fraudsters will not secure public confidence, Milford said, while if the aim is to bring prosecutions resources should be set aside for prosecutors and the courts.
