Overview

The Ministry of Justice recently published the Government's response to the consultation on Deferred Prosecution Agreements. The response recommends changing the law to allow the prosecuting authorities to enter DPAs with companies who admit to economic crimes.

DPAs act as a form of plea bargain, allowing a company to escape prosecution if it admits wrongdoing, takes corrective action and pays a penalty. The idea is to encourage self-reporting of corporate economic crimes such as fraud, bribery and money laundering and to ensure fines are paid in the UK rather than overseas. The Government's aim is to ensure that the prosecuting authorities are made aware of more crimes and obtain better evidence of them.

Field Fisher summarises some of the interesting conclusions of the consultation and explains why the Government's response to the consultation is disappointing.

For full details, click 'View Briefing'.