During the passage of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill in the House of Lords, members have voted in favour of amending the proposed failure to prevent fraud offence to considerably widen its scope. The amendments:
remove the ‘SME exemption’ from the legislation; and
expand the offence to include the failure to prevent money laundering.
Andrew Sackey, partner at Pinsent Masons, said: ‘The amendment to include money laundering is potentially very significant. The government had sought to argue that the money laundering regulations adequately covered this. However, Lord Garnier who brought the amendment disagreed, stating firstly that any extension of the criminal law should be by primary not secondary legislation and, secondly, that the regulations do not cover the situations envisaged by his amendment.’
The Bill will return to the House of Commons to be voted on there later this year. It remains to be seen whether these amendments will be retained.
During the passage of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill in the House of Lords, members have voted in favour of amending the proposed failure to prevent fraud offence to considerably widen its scope. The amendments:
remove the ‘SME exemption’ from the legislation; and
expand the offence to include the failure to prevent money laundering.
Andrew Sackey, partner at Pinsent Masons, said: ‘The amendment to include money laundering is potentially very significant. The government had sought to argue that the money laundering regulations adequately covered this. However, Lord Garnier who brought the amendment disagreed, stating firstly that any extension of the criminal law should be by primary not secondary legislation and, secondly, that the regulations do not cover the situations envisaged by his amendment.’
The Bill will return to the House of Commons to be voted on there later this year. It remains to be seen whether these amendments will be retained.
