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Navigating the Updated SFO-CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance under ECCTA 2023: Failure to Prevent Fraud, Senior Manager Attribution, Charging and DPA Strategy

Published on: 03 September 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Legal News

Article summary

What prompted the update to the Joint SFO-CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance?

The Joint SFO-CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance has been revised to reflect the shifting corporate crime landscape under the ECCTA 2023. Since the 2021 guidance, two major reforms have redefined corporate liability for economic crime. First, the failure to prevent fraud (FTPF) offence, taking effect on 1 September 2025, imposes strict liability on large organisations where an associated person commits fraud intending to benefit the organisation or its clients. The revision provides prosecutors with clear direction ahead of the new offence. Both the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have indicated they will deploy this provision promptly and with vigour. SFO Director Nick Ephgrave has publicly expressed his wish to secure the first prosecution under the ECCTA 2023, emphasising that companies ‘must get their house in order’. Second, the ECCTA 2023 has introduced a broader attribution test for corporate liability. From December 2023, organisations can be held to account for economic offences committed by senior managers acting within their authority, replacing the narrower ‘directing mind’ test. Collectively, these reforms widen the prosecution toolkit: the FTPF offence targets governance failings, while the expanded attribution basis exposes...

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