Defending Failure To Prevent Offences

'Failure to prevent' offences have changed the landscape of corporate criminal liability. Commercial organisations can now be held criminally liable if an 'associated person' commits certain types of offence, subject to a defence which requires them to prove that they did all they reasonably could to prevent the offending. BCL Senior Associate Tom McNeill and partner John Binns explore the reasons why organisation are not defending themselves.

'Failure to prevent' (FTP) offences have changed the landscape of corporate criminal liability.¹

For bribery and facilitation of tax evasion offences, and potentially more economic crimes on the way,² investigating authorities have a route to prosecute commercial organisations that side-steps the requirement to prove wrongdoing by a 'directing mind'.