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ARTICLE · 19 DECEMBER 2025

SFO Publishes New Guidance On Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programmes

K&L Gates
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On 26 November 2025, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) published its Updated Guidance on how it would evaluate a company's compliance programme (the Guidance) for the purposes of prosecutions, considering defences to the ‘failure to prevent offences' and assessing factors relevant to sentencing, among others.

United StatesCriminal Law
Dylan G. Moses
Dylan G. Moses
Michael E. Ruck
Michael E. Ruck
Rosie Naylor
Rosie Naylor
Jordan Hawthorne
Jordan Hawthorne
Hanna Walczak
Hanna Walczak

On 26 November 2025, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) published its Updated Guidance on how it would evaluate a company's compliance programme (the Guidance) for the purposes of prosecutions, considering defences to the 'failure to prevent offences' and assessing factors relevant to sentencing, among others.

The new Guidance sets out six scenarios where the SFO may assess a compliance programme. A key addition is where an organisation will have a defence of 'reasonable procedures' for the purposes of the failure to prevent fraud offence under s.199 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA). A significant portion of the Guidance focuses on the ECCTA defence, which is discussed in detail below.

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