The speakers at this Roundtable discussion at Queen Mary, University of London included: Celia Wells, Professor of Criminal Law at Bristol University; David Green, Director of the Serious Fraud Office; Stephen Parkinson, Head of Criminal and Regulatory Litigation Group; Kingsley Napley; and Jonathan Fisher QC, Devereux Chambers, Temple.

Under the UK’s National Anti-Corruption Action Plan, the Ministry of Justice has committed to examining the case for a new offence of corporate failure to prevent economic crime and the rules on establishing corporate liability more widely. MOJ officials will be reporting to the new government in June on its recommendations.

The new government has the opportunity to shape the UK’s laws on corporate liability which have been criticised from various quarters for many years. There is widespread agreement that the current corporate liability rules make it very difficult to prosecute corporate offenders, and particularly large corporate offenders. Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 introduced a new offence of failure to prevent bribery by corporates. The key debate is whether Section 7 should be extended to all economic crime or whether the UK needs to introduce more comprehensive corporate liability laws such as those in the US to be most effective in deterring and prosecuting corporate economic crime.

The purpose of this Roundtable was to have a high level debate with key figures in the enforcement, legal, academic and NGO communities about what will make the UK’s corporate liability laws fit for purpose.