There has been much confusion and misreporting about corporate manslaughter in the last 24 hours. To correct some common misunderstandings, and in the light of the Lord Chancellor’s plans for a greater public understanding of the legal system, here are some facts on corporate manslaughter prosecutions in England and Wales. Continue reading
This week saw the publication of two reports: a joint report from HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspector of Constabulary, and The Mouncher Investigation Report by Richard Horwell QC, both highly critical of the way the police and the CPS handle disclosure, and calling for significant change.
Many criminal practitioners will feel a strong sense of déjà vu when reading another report detailing the various failings of the disclosure process. In 2013, the DPP published a report by HMCPSI into serious failings in the disclosure process that led to a miscarriage of justice in R v Mouncher. A decade earlier, a number of prosecutions brought by HM Customs & Excise were overturned when customs officers deliberately withheld information that a critical prosecution witness was a registered informant in the infamous LCB prosecutions. A common theme in the failings seems to be some police officers and prosecutors treating the disclosure process as some form of side issue, rather than a vital part of the criminal justice system. Continue reading
Somewhat discreetly, as reported in CivilServiceWorld, the government has suggested that its plan to abolish the Serious Fraud Office has been put on hold. The 2017 Conservative manifesto committed to disbanding the SFO and incorporating its responsibilities into the National Crime Agency. This was a decision not well received by practically every practitioner and commentator, including the former Chancellor George Osbourne, who dedicated the lead editorial in the Evening Standard to setting out the reasons for retaining the organisation. The reasons to save the SFO as expressed by business crime practitioners were covered in detail in Blog, Ten reasons to save the SFO.
To mark the anniversary of the referendum on leaving the EU, Thomson Reuters planned another Legal Debate. The motion for this debate in the successful series was Post Brexit: Tax haven status will make Britain great again!
The debate promised controversial views and lively argument from accomplished speakers. For many, tax havens conjure headlines of scandal, money laundering and corruption, but could this be a viable path for the UK to take following a hard Brexit? In the time between arranging the debate and the date it was held, the political landscape had changed significantly and the intervening general election reduced the mandate for a hard Brexit. Continue reading
The Conservative Party has published its 2017 Manifesto, entitled “Forward together: Our plan for a stronger Britain and a prosperous future”. The manifesto includes a commitment to strengthen Britain’s response to white collar crime by incorporating the Serious Fraud Office into the National Crime Agency, improving intelligence sharing and bolstering the investigation of serious fraud, money laundering and financial crime.
There are numerous reasons to be critical of this commitment. The top ten are: Continue reading
An announcement that the CPS will not be bringing a prosecution rarely makes front page news. On 10 May 2017, the news that no charges would be brought following a high profile police investigation into allegations concerning the expenditure of Conservative Party candidates during the 2015 General Election campaign did just that. The allegations were investigated by 14 police forces, and were said to concern several parliamentary candidates, including serving MPs, and their election agents allegedly submitting inaccurate expense returns.
In criminal law, the law surrounding the concept of dishonesty, an element in many charges, has been largely settled since 1982, by the famous judgement of Lord Lane in R v Ghosh, requiring both proof of subjective and objective dishonesty. The issue has been less clear in regulatory cases, and was seemingly turned on its head by the judgement in Malins v SRA [2017] EWHC 835.
The Education Act 1996 is a wide ranging piece of legislation, much of which is now repealed, comprising of 583 sections and an additional 40 schedules. Those involved in drafting the Act, more than 20 years ago, probably did not expect that in the future a Supreme Court of England and Wales would need to interpret a single word in section 444(1) in one of the most high profile and controversial legal cases for some time. Continue reading
While the letter triggering Article 50 was being delivered the EU Home affairs sub- Committee was in session considering “Criminal Justice Cooperation with the EU after Brexit: The European Arrest Warrant inquiry“.
Oral evidence was given by academics and practitioner experts including Professor Sir Francis Jacobs QC, Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Professor; former Advocate General, King’s College London, European Court of Justice and Dr Anna Bradshaw, Member of the Law Society’s EU Committee; Counsel, Law Society, Peters and Peters.
The remit of this inquiry is to follow up on the Sub-Committee’s previous report on Brexit: UK-EU security and police cooperation by examining more closely how the Government’s intention to “bring an end to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the UK” will affect the UK’s ability to sustain “deep cooperation” with the EU and its Member States in the fight against crime and terrorism.
Some EU leaders felt that Theresa May’s Article 50 letter was threatening that a failure to reach a comprehensive Brexit agreement covering crucial deals on justice and home affairs would result in a weakening of cooperation on crime and security. For more see Legal update, Government triggers Article 50 and starts countdown to Brexit.
The former Belgian prime minister (Guy Verhofstadt ) who represents the European parliament in the negotiations, called it a threat and said the security of citizens was “far too important to start a trade-off of one and the other”
David Davis, Minister for Brexit, responded by confirming that the terms of the letter did not constitute a threat to withdraw security cooperation with the EU if no final deal is reached before Britain’s exit in two years’ time.
The UK and the EU-27 share a strong mutual interest in sustaining police and security cooperation post Brexit. In contrast to other policy areas, all states stand to gain from a positive outcome to this aspect of the negotiations and so it should be dealt with separately. There is a perceived risk that there will be limits to how closely the UK and EU-27 can work together if they are no longer accountable to, and subject to oversight and adjudication by, the same EU institutions, for example the CJEU. Continue reading
The Treasury has unveiled plans to create a new watchdog that will tackle potential weaknesses in the anti-money laundering supervisory system. The new Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) will seek to improve the overall standards of supervision and ensure supervisors and law enforcement work together more effectively.
The news that HM Government is to create such an office is not surprising. Sectors at risk of being used to facilitate money laundering and terrorist financing are supervised by 25 organisations, 22 of which are accountancy and legal services providers’ professional bodies and set down in schedule 3 of the Money laundering Regulations 2007. The complex and unified landscape was therefore ripe for reform and simplification. For more information see Legal update, HM Government to create Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision.