Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs): Is corporate Australia next?

The Federal Government's budget announcements in May this year included notice that funding to the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), will be reduced by $120 million over the next five years¹.The Australian Federal Police (AFP) faces similar losses in funding². The Federal Government's announcements coincided with the recent introduction of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) in the United Kingdom.

The Crime and Courts Act 2013 gives UK prosecuting authorities the power to enter into DPAs. Originally used in the United States, a DPA is an agreement between a prosecutor and a company accused of economic offences, such as fraud or foreign bribery, which allows the company to avoid a criminal conviction in return for compliance with certain conditions. DPAs pose a number of apparent benefits for companies and the public sphere in which those companies operate, including the financial benefits of avoiding drawn-out