Legal News

In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence Law Commission proposes updated framework to modernise contempt of court laws The Law Commission has set out proposals for an updated regime on contempt of court, designed to tackle issues arising from online interaction and digital platforms. It would establish four separate forms of contempt, doing away with the current civil/criminal split. The model aims to clarify the rules governing behaviour in court during trials, compliance with court orders, and...

FCA to centralise UK AML oversight Ministers plan to remove anti‑money laundering supervision from the Solicitors Regulation Authority ( SRA) and other professional bodies, consolidating it within the Financial Conduct Authority to simplify the regime and plug gaps exploited by dirty money. Colette Best, Kingsley Napley LLP’s director of AML, said aligning legal, accountancy and financial services under a single FCA supervisor — replacing 22 professional body supervisors — could make the UK a far harsher environment for laundering. A consultation on the proposals opened on 13 November 2025. The package, which would require legislation, envisages a wholesale reset of how law firms interact with their AML supervisor, with stiffer penalties and more onerous compliance duties. The FCA would gain sweeping enforcement powers over the legal sector for AML and counter‑terrorism requirements, including the ability to levy fines and impose bans in line with...

The Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS) has obtained a civil recovery order compelling Twitter hacker Joseph James O’ Connor to return £4.1 million in cryptocurrency derived from his crimes. In 2023, O’ Connor, 26, received a five-year prison sentence in the United States after admitting guilt to multiple offences, including conspiring to carry out computer intrusions, wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, stalking, and issuing threatening communications......

In this issue: Criminal liability Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Cybercrime and data protection offences Financial services and pensions offences Environmental offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Corporate Crime in Scotland Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal liability Record number of modern slavery cases reported in the UK Between July and September 2025, the Home Office recorded an unprecedented 6,414 suspected modern slavery victims—the largest quarterly figure since the National Referral Mechanism ( NRM) launched in 2009. Alasdair Hobbs, an employment partner at Excello Law, said these numbers should be a wake-up call for employers. See News Analysis: Record number of modern...

Addressing a parliamentary committee, Leveson said younger people should be encouraged to enter criminal practice as barristers and solicitors, and that pay for such work ought to be reviewed. He has been leading a landmark, independent review of England’s ailing criminal court system. As he observed, the older cohort is dropping away and the younger are moving on, turning to other work. Many are getting involved in public inquiries or in regulatory matters—both areas that tend to be better paid than crime. This weak retention rate, he warned, feeds a long-term problem: the justice system needs experienced criminal judges, particularly for complex and difficult cases......

This development follows the recent snapback of all nuclear‑related sanctions on Iran at UN level, after the United Nations Security Council declined to extend sanctions relief. The EU has revived its restrictive measures through six legal instruments. Four took effect on 29 September 2025: Council Decision ( CFSP) 2025/1978, Council Implementing Decision ( CFSP) 2025/1971, Council Implementing Regulation ( EU) 2025/1980 and Council Implementing Regulation ( EU) 2025/1982. The remaining two entered into force on 30 September 2025: Council Regulation ( EU) 2025/1975 and Council Decision ( CFSP) 2025/1972. Collectively, these acts reinstate measures previously adopted by the UN Security Council and transposed into EU law, alongside additional autonomous EU restrictions. These include targeted sanctions on named individuals and entities—travel bans, asset freezes and a bar on providing funds or other economic...

The High Court dismissed the anonymised company’s judicial review application on 23 October 2025, concluding that the FCA’s decision-making process, and its ultimate outcome in the matter, were reasonable when consumer protection was taken into account. Judge Michael Fordham endorsed the regulator’s choice to name and shame the firm in exceptional circumstances, although he observed that some strands of the reasoning were not especially robust. As the judgment in The King ( CIT (an anonymised company)) v The Financial Conduct Authority explained, the FCA had determined that promptly identifying the company was required to inform and protect its customers at the earliest opportunity. That consideration carried considerable weight with the court. ‘ In-house compliance and legal officers should keep this firmly in mind when handling an FCA investigation and may wish to consider early engagement with affected customers to...head off a similar naming...

According to Home Office data released on 6 November 2025, the figure is up 13% on the prior quarter and 35% higher than the equivalent period in 2024. The statistics indicate UK nationals made up 20% of referrals this quarter, with Eritrean people comprising 16% and Somali nationals 10% during the period under review, according to the official release. The NRM is the UK’s mechanism for identifying and assisting potential victims of modern slavery. It enables authorised first responders to submit referrals for an official decision on whether someone has been trafficked, which in turn governs their entitlement to support and protection......

In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Corporate Crime in Scotland Lex Talk®Corporate Crime: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence Courts and Tribunals Judiciary publishes updated AI guidance for judicial office holders The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary ( CATJ) has issued refreshed Artificial Intelligence ( AI) guidance, superseding the April 2025 version. The revision enlarges the AI terminology glossary and intensifies cautions about training-data bias and AI hallucinations that may output inaccurate material....

Two years later, the outlook for the SFO appears markedly altered. Over the past quarter, it has secured a significant new charging avenue via the failure to prevent fraud offence, recovered £1.1m through its inaugural unexplained wealth order ( UWO), and brought charges against six people arising from a pension fraud probe. Against that backdrop, we reflect on the themes that have shaped Ephgrave’s tenure leading the SFO so far, and consider what may follow. Kicking down new doors and closing old ones In February 2024, delivering his first public address as director, Ephgrave set out a drive to accelerate casework and make the SFO bolder, more pragmatic, more proactive. His opening months featured a spike in dawn raids, and he said the team had gone through more front doors in three months than in the previous three years. Eighteen months later, that pace...

Non-financial misconduct Sarah Pritchard, the FCA’s deputy chief executive, wrote in a letter published on 28 October 2025 that probes into so-called non-financial misconduct have climbed over the past three years. She told the House Commons Treasury Committee that conduct such as bullying, harassment or violence is a regulatory concern, and that when the FCA obtains reports or other intelligence indicating this is happening at a regulated firm, it will scrutinise the matter and take action where required. Non-financial misconduct is an expansive term, covering violence, bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination. The FCA has made clear that it intends to tackle this issue decisively......

In this issue: Criminal liability Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Appeal and judicial review 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 Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Corporate Crime in Scotland International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal liability JCHR publishes government response on forced labour in UK supply chains The Joint Committee on Human Rights has issued its Fifth Special Report for the 2024–25 session on forced labour in UK supply chains, prompting an official response led by the...

An alleged Cambodian scam factory's targeting with sanctions measures by US and UK enforcers can be seen a positive step in Anglo- American relations, but whether the action heralds a new dawn in joint sanctions enforcement remains unclear UK and US authorities designated Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group and its chairman, Chen Zhi, in a coordinated move intended to dismantle large‑scale scam centres alleged to systematically dupe victims and relieve them of substantial sums of money. As part of the case, US prosecutors seized US$15bn in cryptocurrency, their largest haul to date, reportedly linked to the alleged fraud. Observers view last week’s coordinated move as a welcome advance in bilateral ties, after doubts about how the two nations would collaborate during the Donald Trump administration had persisted for months. Under Trump, the US refocused its efforts largely on prioritising domestic issues instead. Yet others regard the move as more of an...

R ( Bates) v Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court [2025] EWHC 2532 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling reiterates that the High Court retains a discretion to issue inter partes costs orders in criminal appeals. Under the Murphy principle, such orders were thought unavailable, meaning successful parties in judicial review were unable to recoup their expenditure, even where the prosecution was abusive, vexatious, or lacked merit. Practitioners and clients should now be alive to the prospect of substantial adverse costs if a private prosecution is found to be abusive. Here, the High Court censured the private prosecutor for breaching the duty of candour and withholding material information—failings that directly informed the decision to grant a costs order. The judgment also bolsters defendants: rather than having to rely on the seldom‑met threshold of ‘exceptional...

Assistant Attorney General Nominee Andrew Duva Andrew Duva, nominated to serve as an assistant attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would follow a June 2025 memorandum from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that introduced new parameters for FCPA enforcement. In reply to a question from Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, Duva said he looked forward to adhering to that memo and advancing the strong work of the men and women in the Fraud Section. The FCPA forbids Americans, or issuers of American shares, from paying bribes to foreign officials to obtain or retain business. Enforcement of the FCPA falls to the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. In February 2025, Trump suspended enforcement of the FCPA, directing the DOJ to review existing matters and to issue updated guidance on how the law should be prosecuted......

In its long-awaited reply to the consultation, HM Treasury ( HMT) confirmed the government will establish a unified supervisor for professional services. HMT has appointed the FCA to monitor compliance for 60,000 regulated law firms delivering legal, accountancy, and trust and company services. According to the government, the best way to supervise AML and CTF is for a public organisation to oversee professional services firms. ' Bringing professional services under the FCA’s AML/ CTF supervision will align them with other sectors covered by the money laundering regulations — already monitored by public bodies — and will streamline an overly complex regulatory landscape,' HMT noted. The government added that new legislation, funding arrangements, and a transition plan are required before full implementation of the......

In this issue: Criminal liability Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime 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 Insolvency offences and Companies Act offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Other corporate crime and crime related news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal liability Environment Agency publishes modern slavery report 2022–25 The Environment Agency ( EA) has released its modern slavery report covering September 2022 to March 2025, produced in accordance with section 54(5) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 ( MSA 2015). The report showcases the EA’s work with the Slave- Free...

In a High Court defence dated 9 October 2025 and only recently disclosed to the public, David Crisp, former chief executive of Valorem Group, contends the allegations against him ought to be struck out as an abuse of the court’s process and a ‘contrivance’, and should therefore be dismissed. The firm alleges he breached his duties by continuing to sell products in Russia despite sanctions. His defence asserts Valorem’s High Court claim is disingenuous and the ‘culmination of a campaign’ to ‘drain the defendant financially and emotionally through prolonged court proceedings so he would be compelled to dispose of his shares at a markedly undervalued price’. It further states that Valorem itself kept trading in Russia while sanctions were in force, with chairman David Garofalo’s knowledge and awareness. Accordingly, he says, it cannot amount to a breach of duty for Crisp to have acted...

Private prosecutors face cost-control discipline ( R v BDI & Others) BDI & Others [2025] EWCA Crim 1289 What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment sets a fresh compliance marker for private prosecutors and their advisers. Although POA 1985, s 17 remains an important route for reclaiming properly incurred costs, the Court of Appeal stressed that any expectation of full reimbursement is contingent on procedural accountability. Practitioners must now demonstrate two essential disciplines before seeking payment from central funds: early CPS engagement. Prosecutors should afford the CPS a real and timely chance to decide whether it wishes to assume or conduct the case. A token approach or notification only after proceedings have been issued is unlikely to be adequate market testing of representation and fees. Prosecutors ought to obtain and retain quotations or tenders for solicitors and counsel, showing that...

RSM UK, in a report released on 17 October 2025, said trustees should make reinforcing their cyber-risk frameworks a top priority. It further urged tighter fraud deterrence controls and the retention of printed copies of cyber plans in case systems are knocked out, the firm said. The intervention came after the National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC) reported that the number of such serious incidents has more than doubled in the 12 months to September 2025. Erin Sims, RSM’s Fraud Risk Director, stated she expects cyber attacks on pension schemes to increase as the late 2025 Autumn Budget heads to Parliament and speculation builds over the tax-free status of pension lump sums. ‘ Many households are feeling the pinch as inflation climbs, and some......