The ability to criminally prosecute organizations for the conduct of their senior managers was first introduced in the UK by The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ("ECCTA"). This legislation focused specifically on certain economic crimes. On Wednesday, April 29, 2026, the scope of potential offenses and entities impacted increased exponentially when Royal Assent was provided to the Crime & Policing Act 2026.
In the new legislation, section 254 replaces section 196 of ECCTA. Section 254 now allows corporates to be liable for any criminal offense conducted by senior managers acting within the scope of their authority. The ramifications for this are significant and could give rise to a large increase in prosecutions against organizations.
To understand the magnitude of the potential impact, use the failure to prevent fraud offense, one of the headline provisions within ECCTA, as an example. Under section 196 of ECCTA, corporates can be held criminally liable for transgressions by senior managers for engaging in fraudulent actions that benefit the company. However, the legislation only applies to “large organisations” as defined and there is a defense of “reasonable procedures”, also as defined. Under section 254, no such size provision exists, no company benefit has to be identified, there is no reasonable procedures defense, and it is not limited to economic crime.
It is too early to understand how this will impact the landscape, but there are suggestions that indictments will become more aggressively sought, and deferred prosecution agreements more readily used, particularly in public interest cases such as environmental and data protection offenses. The new legislation may also give rise to private prosecutions brought by non-prosecutorial bodies, such as advocacy groups. In response, corporates should consider their non-financial risk profile and the impact of this new legislation as a priority.
The Crime and Policing Bill 2025 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and is now the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/crime-and-policing-act-2026
