Billed as a “game-changer” and providing a significant change in gear in the UK’s fight against corporate crime since the Bribery Act 2010, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023.

The Act represents a marked shift in how law enforcement bodies will deal with the scourge of fraud. Although the Act will strengthen anti-money laundering powers and reform Companies House, it is the approach to corporate criminal liability and its amending of the ‘directing mind and will’ test that has many querying how it will affect their businesses.