Legal News

Two key challenges facing the SFO Resourcing has long been problematic for the SFO. Operating on a constrained public budget of £89m and a headcount of 526, the authority pays markedly less than the private sector, and the gap is growing. Opportunities for advancement are also slimmer than in private practice. Though the SFO boasts many highly capable people, pay differentials inevitably fuel a brain drain and churn; the latest annual report records 16.3% of posts unfilled. Culturally, the SFO still lacks—though it ought to command—the cachet among law graduates that the US Department of Justice enjoys. Disclosure is the other pressure point. Over the past twenty years, SFO investigations and prosecutions have become tougher due to the scale and intricacy of digital material. The authority has repeatedly...

Campaigners have applauded the amendment to the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB), laid before Parliament on the evening of 7 July 2025. They argue contracts intended to safeguard trade secrets have instead been deployed to mask unlawful conduct and mute victims of sexual harassment within workplaces and across sectors. Employment lawyers have long publicly backed tighter limits on unethical NDAs, yet privately worry about an outright prohibition in non‑commercial disputes and its broader ripple effects. On 8 July 2025 they cautioned that ministers should carefully weigh unintended effects of any ban and significantly boost funding for the tribunal system to handle a likely increase in harassment claims. David Greenhalgh, a partner at Excello Law, warned the reform 'may work counterintuitively' and prove 'detrimental in the short term for victims' if employers see no value in settlements that lack...

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Decision to prosecute and alternatives to prosecution Criminal procedure and evidence Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Money laundering International Other corporate crime news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Home Office announces nationwide operation targeting illegal working in gig economy The Home Office has rolled out a nationwide operation to tackle unlawful working within the gig economy, with delivery riders singled out for particular attention. Positioned as part of the government’s ‘ Plan for Change’, the...

Background In February 2024, the FCA, as part of its refreshed enforcement strategy, set out plans to name and shame regulated firms under investigation before any investigation had ended or any disciplinary outcome had been reached. On 27 February 2024, Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, delivered a speech stating that enforcement activity is designed to prevent harm and align with the aim of safeguarding consumers and markets. She said these measures directly advance the FCA’s strategic objectives of minimising and preventing serious harm while creating and upholding high standards. The FCA opened a consultation on the same day. The accompanying consultation paper, among other changes, proposed publicly declaring the start of an enforcement investigation, identifying the subject of the investigation, and issuing appropriate updates on investigations into alleged misconduct by a firm. The proposals triggered a...

James Edwards Staley v The Financial Conduct Authority [2025] UKUT 00203 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision underscores the circumstances that can trigger a prohibition order. The FCA may prohibit an individual from performing functions tied to regulated activities where it concludes they lack fitness and propriety. Such orders are protective in nature and not intended as punishment. The FCA will assess the risk to consumers and the market when considering such an order. Among various considerations is the standing and significance of the firm the individual represents, which can be pertinent to whether an order is appropriate. The Tribunal also determined that the FCA’s Decision Procedural and Penalties Manual ( DEPP) should be applied with flexibility when setting a financial penalty. Moreover, the Tribunal’s assessment of any penalty will reflect the situation as at the date the...

In this issue Cross-border investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Money laundering International Lex Talk®Corporate Crime: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Useful information Cross-border investigations On 24 June 2025, the Director of the Serious Fraud Office announced the agency is ‘back in business’ with the US Department of Justice, following a policy shift in the DOJ’s approach to enforcing international bribery and corruption laws. See News Analysis: Ephgrave says SFO and DOJ are ‘back in business’. The SFO has strengthened its financial crime cooperation with the DOJ and joined the IACCC to...

On 9 June 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche unveiled long-awaited new DOJ guidance for FCPA investigations and enforcement. The very next day, Matthew Galeotti, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, delivered a speech that announced this guidance and set out the Department’s approach to white-collar prosecutions more generally. Taken together, the address and the Blanche memorandum rejected speculation that the Trump administration would shelve FCPA enforcement. There is genuine optimism that the Blanche memorandum will steer the DOJ towards a reasonable, proportionate approach to FCPA enforcement—one that does not disproportionately and needlessly punish companies, yet equally does not condone bribery abroad. Nevertheless, the guidance (and the dismissals of several active FCPA prosecutions this year) still leave certain questions unanswered about their effect on businesses operating overseas. In applying the guidance and refining the memorandum, there remains more the DOJ should do to...

At a brief hearing session at Southwark Crown Court, the Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS) confirmed it will not press ahead with the case against Kase Lawal, following a review of the case that raised serious concerns about its mishandling of disclosure obligations in the case. Allison Clare KC of QEB Hollis Whiteman, appearing for the CPS, informed Judge Mark Weekes that, once the mistakes came to light, prosecutors would need to redo disclosure fully from start to finish—covering the cataloguing, recording and oversight of unused material—before the trial scheduled to begin in September 2025. She added that meeting that timetable is unachievable and, given the duration of the inquiry— Lawal was detained in 2017—it is no longer compatible with the interest of justice to continue the prosecution, Clare said......

On 25 June 2025, junior minister for AI and the digital economy, Feryal Clark, was questioned by MPs in Parliament about the Online Safety Act 2023, following her earlier comment that Ofcom’s codes of practice on illegal harms must be ‘proofed against judicial review’. Alan Mak MP, the Conservative opposition’s science spokesman, pressed her on whether this signalled that the Labour administration was placing legal defensibility ahead of swift safeguards for children online. Clark replied that the statute had been framed and enacted under the previous Conservative government, which ceded office to Labour a year earlier, and that it had been subject to delays and revisions that shaped its current form. She contended that it was his party that stalled and diluted the legislation, while ministers are now focused on delivering the Bill as outlined in the guidance....

District Judge Louisa Ciecióra convicted Aozma Sultana, 42, for refusing or failing to comply with an OFSI request for financial details under terrorism regulations. Sultana gave no 'evidence of reasonable excuse' for missing the June 2024 deadline, the judge said. Ciecióra J stated she did not accept that Ms Sultana had produced any proof amounting to a reasonable excuse, and ultimately found her guilty of the offence. The judge added that Sultana had not properly completed the first form submitted in response to the information request, and had then provided no answers to later follow-up requests sent by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation......

Yet questions persist about what lies ahead for several core enforcement fronts, from foreign bribery and public corruption to crypto. White-collar practitioners and their clients are also monitoring the government’s renewed bid to incentivise voluntary self-reporting of corporate misconduct and how it unfolds in the months ahead. Concurrently, the white-collar bar across the profession is crafting fresh defence tactics in response to a spate of Trump clemency decisions that aided certain high-profile offenders found guilty of corruption and financial offences. Below are five pivotal themes to watch as the latter half of 2025 develops. FCPA enforcement Within a month of re-entering the White House, President Donald Trump also halted enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ( FCPA) to, in his words, ‘further American economic and national security’. The step fuelled predictions that FCPA policing would be sharply reduced at the time. However, a 9 June 2025 memo...

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Money laundering Other Corporate Crime news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Protect study reveals Gen Z are the least likely cohort to raise whistleblowing concerns at work about wrongdoing — including health and safety failings, fraud, bullying or harassment — with findings released on 23 June 2025. See News Analysis: Protect study shows Gen Z are less likely to blow the whistle at work. Cross border criminal investigations Law Commission publishes review on international criminal co-operation. The Commission has issued a scoping review into UK arrangements for international co-operation and extradition. Written by Durham University’s Gemma Davies, it flags major concerns with the...

Nick Ephgrave, who leads the SFO, said ties with the DOJ are back on course after the US authority unveiled on 9 June 2025 fresh and tougher guidance for enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ( FCPA). Addressing a conference in London, he said he was not worried about the international partnership, despite concerns sparked in February 2025 when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that suspended enforcement against US companies. ' It is not business as usual, but we are back in business,' Ephgrave remarked. He, who is set to meet a DOJ official in Paris on 25 June 2025, added that the SFO’s connections with the department remain 'strong' and 'fruitful'......

Lawyers are increasingly alert to the threat posed by AI-produced material that can be virtually indistinguishable from genuine evidence. They also recognise that AI is being deployed to doctor videos and images, creating convincing fabrications. Joel Seager, a partner at Fladgate LLP, observed that technology moves so quickly it can be exploited across the disputes landscape to disrupt any stage of proceedings. He added that any role involving the presentation of evidence leaves room for bad-faith conduct, and that whenever testimony is required, there is scope to conjure an almost fictitious person to speak in someone’s place. The risks were starkly shown in a High Court decision on 6 June, which referred a barrister and a solicitor to their regulators after two matters in which numerous case law citations were submitted that either did not exist or contained invented passages. Judge Victoria Sharp wrote that...

A You Gov poll commissioned by Protect, a whistleblowing charity, indicates that those aged 18 to 24 are less inclined to raise concerns with their employer than all older generations. However, the poll also found that Gen Z are more likely to reveal wrongdoing on social media and to journalists... Sybille Raphael, Protect’s legal director, noted that Gen Z are less certain about what to report to employers and how. ‘ Despite perceptions that Gen Z are more vocal than other generations about poor behaviour in the workplace, our research shows they are less likely to blow the whistle......

The white-collar prosecutor’s pitch to ‘collaborate’ with businesses on complying with economic crime laws White-collar prosecutors’ plan to “work with” companies on meeting economic crime obligations—by sharing data, insights on trends and analysis—seems to dovetail with ministers’ rhetoric that every UK regulator should champion growth to revive the flagging economy, according to lawyers. While the government has told certain regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA), to factor growth into their core objectives, it has not, at least overtly, tried to steer the SFO or recast its duties. “ For the SFO it’s a tricky balance: at its core it investigates and prosecutes, it isn’t a regulator, and it has long stressed that distinction,” said Ben Morgan, a partner at Freshfields LLP and the agency’s former joint head of bribery and corruption. Unlike the FCA and other oversight bodies, the SFO’s role is set in...

Misuse of AI in court and the consequences ( Ayinde v Haringey & Al- Haroun v Qatar National Bank) R (on the application of Frederick Ayinde) v Haringey London Borough Council; Al- Haroun v Qatar National Bank QPSC and another company [2025] EWHC 1383 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling sets out explicit directions for lawyers who deploy AI, so that they remain within their professional obligations. The court also outlined what must happen when practitioners discover that they, their wider team, or their client has misused AI. Generative AI systems, including Chat GPT, are not a dependable source of legal research. They can offer convincing but inaccurate claims, refer to authorities that do not exist and attribute quotations to genuine materials that are not present in those texts. Both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar...

In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence Victims and Courts Bill Introduced on 7 May 2025 by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt. Hon. Shabna Mahmood, the Victims and Courts Bill is currently progressing through Committee Stage. Liam Lane, an associate at Peters & Peters, examines the Bill’s central provisions. See News Analysis: Victims and Courts...

The Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) says its refreshed approach is designed to help UK Plc steer through new legislation that lowers the bar for prosecuting companies over fraud and bribery. It seeks to recruit the private sector as the first line of defence against financial crime, the authority added. Michael Gallagher, the specialist prosecutor’s chief investigator, said the SFO is providing firms with complimentary data-sharing, trend insights and analysis, plus events and training on mitigating risks so they do not breach anti-bribery rules. The organisation, he noted, aims to balance the carrot with the stick as part of the UK’s growth agenda. The SFO, in particular, is often seen as purely an investigative and prosecuting body, Gallagher said. That remains accurate, but it is not our only purpose. We also prioritise preventing harm to the public. We also place emphasis on UK...

Although considerable attention has focused heavily on the Competition and Markets Authority’s ( CMA) bolstered direct enforcement toolkit, the DMCCA 2024 likewise broadens and fortifies further the core foundations of consumer protection law in the UK in several important ways. In this piece, we explore the fresh rules on unfair commercial practices, setting out in detail the operative tests, key risk points and practical approaches designed to achieve compliance in practice. What has changed The DMCCA 2024 restates and revises the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, SI 2008/1277 ( CPUTR 2008). It preserves the split between practices that are per se unfair—and therefore unlawful—and those that are only unfair where they influence a consumer’s commercial choices. However, the range of commercial practices falling within each limb has been materially enlarged under the DMCCA 2024. Prohibited practices The following behaviours are always treated as unfair,...