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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct UK fraud watchdog told to disclose price of unsuccessful ENRC investigation amid ‘strong’ public interest A London court has ruled that the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO), the UK’s white-collar crime body, must set out the costs of its decade-long, abortive inquiry into mining conglomerate Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation ( ENRC), finding it was wrong to withhold the figures. See News Analysis: UK fraud prosecutor ordered to reveal cost of failed ENRC probe due to...
Ephgrave, who will celebrate his first year in post on 25 September 2024, launched five fresh fraud inquiries in rapid order as he moved to recast the reputation of the white-collar agency after a run of headline failures. With the burst of openings now easing and the agency devoting time and resources to sifting evidence, white-collar specialists are asking if Ephgrave can sustain his early emphasis on swift action, pragmatism and consumer-protection matters. That concern is sharper while cross-border bribery and corruption investigations — by nature more intricate and slower — remain, for many white-collar practitioners, the blockbuster work the specialist prosecutor is singularly positioned to pursue. Louise Hodges, head of white-collar crime at Kingsley Napley LLP, said there is intense pressure on the SFO to prove itself in its stated mission as a specialist prosecuting authority targeting top-level serious or complex fraud,...
Britain’s tax authority secured £991m through Code of Practice 9 ( COP9) enquiries, which focus specifically on tax fraud cases. That total has leapt from only £89m since April 2023, a rise of 1,000%, according to Pinsent Masons. The jump is partly linked to the case involving former Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone, who paid more than £650m to HMRC. Nonetheless, the authority still went on to collect close to £340m from other COP9 matters, the law firm said. ' Taxpayers must treat COP9 enquiries with utmost seriousness', Ian Robotham, legal director at Pinsent Masons, said in a statement......
Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programmes ( ECCP) Nicole Argentieri, principal deputy assistant lawyer general and chief of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, stated in prepared remarks at a Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics conference that prosecutors will scrutinise how companies gauge and handle the risks of new technology, including AI, across both their business and their compliance programmes. Under the ECCP policy, prosecutors will consider: the technology a company and its staff use to conduct business; whether the company has carried out a risk assessment on the use of that technology; and whether appropriate steps have been taken to mitigate any risk associated with its use. She added that the division also wants to know whether firms are monitoring and testing their technology to assess if it operates as intended and aligns with the firm’s code of conduct. Argentieri said the ECCP was further updated to include...
Insurance technology company Sprout.ai In a report released on 18 September 2024, Sprout.ai highlighted findings from a Censuswide poll of 200 UK claims handlers run in July 2024. According to the study, 19% said as much as one quarter of all claims could stem from AI-related fraud, and 65% had noticed a rise in fraudulent activity since 2021. The research also indicated that 93% believed fraudsters are targeting lower-value cases under £2,000, with 47% witnessing AI-generated paperwork submitted for claims between £501 and £1,000. Roi Amir, chief executive......
The Payment Systems Regulator’s plan to lower the reimbursement ceiling from £415,000 to £85,000 for authorised push payment fraud, taking effect on 7 October 2024, risks spurring offenders to split scams into numerous sham transfers to maximise compensation claims. Authorised push payment, or APP, fraud arises when consumers are duped into sending funds to criminals, and it has already proved stubbornly resistant. Money lost to this fraud reached almost £460m in the year to December 2023, according to the trade body UK Finance. Daren Allen, a partner at Shoosmiths LLP, cautioned that, even at the reduced level, the reimbursement framework could introduce a fresh hazard, with the scheme as designed open to exploitation by organised crime. Criminal schemes A payer might in fact be part of the plot, sending money to a willing payee purely to trigger mandatory repayments from the banks involved. The aim would be to...
In this issue Criminal procedure and evidence Appeal and judicial review Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft 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 Challenging the decision not to prosecute ( R (on the application of Hillary Smith) v DPP) The High Court’s judgment in R (on the application of Hillary Smith) v Director of Public Prosecutions delivers notable guidance on three fronts: the weight to be attached to inquest conclusions when the Crown Prosecution Service’s ( CPS) decides whether or not to bring a...
The Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) 'was not entitled to withhold the information requested' on the ENRC investigation, the General Regulatory Chamber of the First- Tier Tribunal ( FTT) said. The General Regulatory Chamber of the First- Tier Tribunal ( FTT) has ruled that the SFO had no right to withhold the requested ENRC data and has directed the agency to release the figures within 42 days. The decision marks a win for George Greenwood of British newspaper The Times, who contested the UK Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) decision permitting the SFO to invoke freedom of information exemptions and withhold the figures. The prosecutor’s decade-long probe into ENRC, the UK arm of Kazakhstan-focused miner Eurasian Resources Group, concluded in August 2023 without any charges, and is thought to have racked up costs totalling tens of millions of pounds. In December, the High Court held the SFO...
The statement cautioned that algorithms may enable rivals to exchange competitively sensitive information, fix prices, or co-ordinate on other terms or commercial strategies in breach of competition laws. It has become evident that both the Commission and the CMA are prioritising ex officio cartel enforcement, including by boosting resources and developing new detection and enforcement tools to drive prosecutions for cartel conduct. This article sets out a review of where these jurisdictions’ approaches to cartel enforcement converge and where they differ. In terms of similarities Broaden the definition of what amounts to cartel behaviour Rely less on leniency applications to trigger cartel probes Enhance detection methods Place greater weight on prosecuting obstruction of justice Strengthen communication and co-operation between enforcement bodies Within the EU, the Commission acts as the principal enforcer for cartel offences that span across Member State...
At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Rimmer quashed the conviction of Anna Machkevitch for not complying with an SFO requirement to provide documents relating to her father, Alexander Machkevitch—one of the trio of billionaire partners behind ENRC. Jonathan Hall KC of 6KBW, for the SFO, told the brief hearing that the agency accepted there was “no realistic prospect of conviction” and would tender no evidence against the appeal, and that it would not be resisting it either. In July, the SFO confirmed it would not contest Machkevitch’s challenge to the conviction......
What are the practical implications of this case? CPS prosecutorial decisions will continue to benefit from a broad margin of appreciation in the courts, yet this ruling indicates that those impacted by decisions not to prosecute can now reasonably expect—and insist upon—clearer reasoning and justification from the CPS. Earlier challenges to non-prosecution outcomes produced a settled line of authority emphasising the courts’ need to grant the CPS a high degree of latitude when judging the reasonableness of prosecutorial choices, particularly following the introduction of the victim right to review scheme, which provided complainants with an internal independent review. Certain features arising in cases of this nature may mean the CPS must supply more comprehensive reasons for a decision to be regarded as reasonable, or that a reviewing court will be required to undertake a more rigorous level of scrutiny when examining the...
In this issue: Sentencing 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 International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Sentencing Sentencing Council issues annual report for 2023–2024 The Sentencing Council ( SC) has published its 2023–24 annual report, setting out activity from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Highlights comprise issuing updated and new definitive, offence-specific sentencing guidelines, running its third yearly consultation on miscellaneous amendments, seeking views on revisions to the overarching guideline and three offence-specific guidelines, and releasing results from three research studies. See: LNB News 11/09/2024 42. Sentencing Council launches consultations on miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines and on ancillary orders guidance The SC has begun its fourth yearly consultation on miscellaneous adjustments to sentencing guidelines, alongside guidance on...
European General Court rejects bid to annul EU sanctions on Russia’s National Settlement Depository The European General Court dismissed an effort by Russia’s National Settlement Depository to overturn EU sanctions, finding the measures proportionate to the bloc’s aim of reducing Russia’s capacity to finance the invasion of Ukraine and supported by sufficiently detailed reasoning. The court stated that the contested acts are designed to cut Russian state revenues and apply pressure on the Russian government, thereby limiting its ability to fund its activities; consequently, targeting economic operators that provide the Russian authorities with material or financial backing aligns with that purpose and cannot be considered inappropriate. The EU introduced sanctions against the Russian government in February 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, before expanding them to encompass entities such as the depository......
Notaries Notaries (qualified lawyers empowered to verify documents so they are fit for use) do not infringe prohibitions on giving legal advice to companies based in Russia, as they operate wholly independently and impartially towards clients, the European Court of Justice ruled. The preliminary decision stated: ‘ A notary does not render a service but simply fulfils an official role’. A notary must ‘keep an equal distance from all parties and their respective interests, acting solely in the interests of the law and legal certainty’. The court added that notaries represent neither side when carrying out a public function to properly authenticate legal instruments......
In this issue Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Corporate Crime in Scotland International Lex Talk®Corporate Crime: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct SFO cannot challenge liability for ENRC probe On 2 September 2024, the Court of Appeal declined to permit the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) to contest findings that former SFO officials prompted a former Dechert LLP partner to share confidential material from an internal investigation into a mining company. See News Analysis: SFO can't challenge liability for ENRC probe. SFO publishes speech by Interim Chief Capability Officer Also on 2 September 2024, the SFO released a speech by Freya Grimwood, Interim Chief Capability Officer. Grimwood reviewed...
Margaret, not her real name, was off work in 2022 due to stress and turned to online gaming to unwind. Ever cautious, she used separate email addresses, kept financial details off the mobile phone she played on, and never revealed any personal information that could identify her... Yet the man who contacted her on Scrabble Go in August 2022 felt different, less insistent. He asked for nothing, shared pictures of where he said he lived, and simply offered light, friendly conversation. By December 2024, using the name Michael Moore, he had persuaded her to put US$700 into Bitcoin through what she believed was a legitimate cryptocurrency platform... Within weeks, Margaret transferred £78,000—most of her life savings—as Michael pushed for further investments and service fees, threatening that she would lose the initial funds. With her bank accounts emptied and her pension pot gone, she was...
How is AI being utilised to facilitate financial crime and what type of activities should businesses be watching out for in the fight against financial crime? While AI and associated tools are among the most powerful means of combating financial crime—and their success is clear—they have limitations and introduce notable risks. AI acts as a force multiplier for criminality, breathing new life into ‘old’ fraud through automation. It can increase the speed, effectiveness and persistence of money laundering, insider trading and cyber-attacks. AI can be used to: strengthen existing attacks—making threats harder for AML, anti-fraud, anti-virus tools and other filters to detect devise new attacks—by manipulating or fabricating data to create confusion and/or impersonate officials automate attacks—enabling large-scale financial crime with minimal effort Generative AI can produce synthetic identities using forged passports, driving licences and utility bills, then establish sham...
Cobban and another v Director of Public Prosecutions [2024] EWHC 1908 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? A clear separation is drawn between holders of public office (police officers exchanging messages about policing matters) and private individuals who might be prosecuted under section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003 on the basis of consensual private communications’ content Where Convention rights are engaged, a proportionality assessment is required, in line with the approach in Casserly [2024] EWCA Crim 25; 1 Cr App 18 The appellants maintained that, unless R v Collins [2006] UKHL 40; [2007] 1 WLR ( HL) is restricted to its own facts, the law would capture consensual sharing of indecent material between private persons. Lord Brown had highlighted this concern at [27] in Collins, leaving it open. The higher court sided with the DPP: officers who,...
The Court of Appeal refused the SFO leave to challenge a 2022 judgment which concluded that officials had unlawfully liaised with Neil Gerrard, the former head of white-collar investigations at Dechert, to make unauthorised disclosures about his internal inquiry into Eurasian Natural Resources Corp ( ENRC). The outcome is a setback for the SFO, which will have to pay ENRC millions of pounds in damages for wasted expenditure and legal fees in the short term, and faces the possibility of a colossal damages bill for launching its abortive criminal investigation. “ We are disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision,” a spokesperson for the SFO said. “ Any damages awarded are subject to ongoing proceedings.” In the judgment, Justice Stephen Males said the SFO’s appeal disputed factual matters that would be best determined by the judge following exhaustive evidence heard across two trials. High Court...
According to Giles Thomson, the head of financial sanctions at OFSI, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation agency will impose its first monetary penalties for a breach of measures targeting Russian elites and their enablers at some point before the end of the year. Speaking at an economic crime conference in Cambridge, in eastern England, Thomson said that the sanction would be pursued via the authority’s civil recovery powers. He did not make clear whether the case relates to a business or a private person. The official described the move as the outcome of complex investigations undertaken since the invasion of Ukraine, over that period......
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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