Tackling Corporate Crime: Will the UK’s new Act work?

A major new Act has recently been passed seeking to drive ‘dirty money out of the UK’ and thereby ‘strengthen our business environment’, ‘support our national security’ and ‘combat economic crime’.* The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) includes significant wide-ranging reforms targeting corporate crime. But will it work? In this event for LSE staff and students, LSE Law faculty experts will explain and evaluate important reforms introduced by the ECCTA. This event will be of interest in particular to LLB and LLM students studying corporate law, financial crime and criminal law.  *UK Govt: Factsheet, 26 Oct 2023.

Speakers:

Professor Jeremy Horder: The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 is the UK Parliament’s most significant ever reform of the general principles of corporate criminality. The 2023 Act makes it possible, for the first time, to identify the company itself with serious fault-based crimes committed by its senior managers, as well as by its directors. The Act also introduces a brand new criminal offence of corporate failure to prevent economic crime.  I will explain these new developments, and argue that in important respects they are flawed.

Visiting Professor in Practice Mary Stokes: Criminals are using companies for fraudulent and illegal purposes, taking advantage of the very open system at Companies House for registering companies and publicising information.  The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 aims to stop this sort of abuse.  It also seeks to promote the accuracy of the information on the register by giving the Registrar of Companies new powers.   This represents a “big moment” for Companies House, as there will be a shift in its role from a passive repository of company data to an active gatekeeper. In this talk, I will  examine the key reforms and assess their likely effects.

Discussant: Professor Eva Micheler

Chair: Professor Jo Braithwaite

This event is only available to LSE staff and students.