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UK SFO Strategy 2024–2029: workforce overhaul, AI‑enabled disclosure, intelligence‑led enforcement, whistleblower incentives, DPAs and ‘failure to prevent fraud’—implications for corporates and counsel

Published on: 07 May 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert
Legal News
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Article summary

On 18 April 2024, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office unveiled its 2024–2029 strategy, the first under new director Nick Ephgrave. Echoing themes from his February 2024 maiden address, the plan is deliberately ambitious, signalling an intention for the SFO to be recognised as the leading specialist, innovative and collaborative body driving the fight against serious and complex fraud, bribery and corruption. This overarching ambition is distilled into four objectives, each with concrete actions slated as soon as 2025:

  • build a highly specialised, engaged and expert workforce
  • be prepared to harness evolving technology and tools
  • counter crime effectively through intelligence, enforcement and prevention
  • act proactively within both domestic and global justice systems

Recruiting, developing and retaining a highly specialised, engaged and skilled work force

The complexity of the SFO’s caseload necessitates multi‑disciplinary expertise, with teams of lawyers, investigators and forensic accountants working together. Nevertheless, the two most recent examinations of the SFO—the Calvert‑Smith and Altman reviews—identified low morale, significant staff turnover and insufficient technological capability...

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