| Link(s): | Crime and Policing Act 2026 – GOV.UK Crime and Policing Bill: serious crime factsheet – GOV.UK Crime and Policing Bill |
Context
The Home Office and the MoJ have jointly updated the GOV.UK web page in relation to the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (‘the Act’), following it receiving Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. The Act makes a provision for corporate liability (so making the business itself responsible) where a senior manager commits an offence while acting in the scope of their actual or apparent authority, for all crimes.
Background
The Economic Crime Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) contains provisions in relation to corporate responsibility for offences committed by senior managers, but that responsibility is limited to ‘economic crimes’. The ECCTA addressed shortcomings in corporate liability laws in a significant number of cases, but the then government acknowledged during the passage of the ECCTA that wider reform was required to introduce corporate liability for all crimes. Those ECCTA provisions are now, therefore, replaced and considerably widened by the new provisions in the Act.
Key points to note and next actions
- The bill adopts the definition of ‘senior manager’ as provided in the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. This definition looks at what the senior manager’s roles and responsibilities are within the organisation – the level of managerial influence they might exert – rather than their job title. It covers instances where the senior manager is a person who plays a significant role in the making of decisions about the whole or a substantial part of the activities of the body corporate.
- This has the advantage of providing greater clarity on the parameters of the legal test and will also bring the law up to date to reflect modern company structures where directing minds are spread across different functions of a business. It will enable prosecutions to progress in more cases where senior level employees who do exert decision making power are found to be involved in the offending.
- All firms need to be aware of this development, and should review their internal policies and check their PII cover and any D&O (or similar covers) they have in place.
- For insurance firms, this is an issue to consider when (for intermediaries) renewing business and corporate insurances for clients, and (for insurers) when reviewing policy wording and contract coverage.