3rd November 2023
After lengthy debate and disagreement between the Lords and the Commons throughout the year on the ambit of the failure to prevent economic crime regime under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, the legislation is now on the statute book as the 2023 Act. 4 Pump Court’s Lord Garnier KC successfully amended the Bill in the House of Lords to expand the ambit of the failure to prevent regime in line with the Bribery Act 2010 (failure to prevent bribery) and the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (failure to prevent the facilitation of tax offences) to include money laundering and fraud. The Government in the Commons overturned the addition of money laundering and exempted all companies and partnerships other than “large organisations” which Edward Garnier suggested exempted 99.5% of companies and partnerships from the new offence of failure to prevent fraud offences. After three rounds of “ping pong” between the Lords and the Commons in which he won the votes with increasing majorities with cross-party support, Edward Garnier had to allow the elected House to carry the day even though he believes the Government has missed an opportunity to reform the law in a legally coherent and politically sensible way.
Access the full article, written by Jonathan Ames here.
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