Partner London
"The Crime and Policing Act, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, introduces criminal liability for companies where a senior manager, acting within the actual or apparent scope of their authority, commits an offence in the UK."
The Crime and Policing Act, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, introduces criminal liability for companies where a senior manager, acting within the actual or apparent scope of their authority, commits an offence in the UK.
This has dramatically lowered the barrier for holding companies liable for criminal offences.
Corporate criminal liability in the UK
Holding a company responsible for criminal offences has been a notoriously difficult task in the UK. This is due to what is referred to as the ‘identification doctrine’ – a company can only be held liable where an individual (or individuals) can be identified as having committed the wrong whilst acting as the ‘directing mind and will’ of the company. This meant that, in order for a company to be held liable, a crime must have been committed by the top level of management – e.g. C-Suite or board of directors. In reality, most day-to-day decision making in modern companies occurs at a lower level of management, making it difficult for a company to be held directly responsible for criminal offences.
Over the last 15-20 years, the UK has incrementally sought to close this gap by introducing several measures such as the failure to prevent bribery offence under the Bribery Act 2010 and the failure to prevent fraud offence under section 199 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”) (see our article for more information). The ECCTA also introduced, through sections 196-198, attribution of criminal liability to the company for specific economic crimes committed by senior managers.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has now changed this approach across the board.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 is an Act exceeding 550 pages that addresses a range of issues including antisocial behaviour, child criminal exploitation, sexual offences, counter-terrorism, traffic offences, knife crime and policing integrity.
At section 250, it states: “Where a senior manager of a body corporate or partnership (“the organisation”) acting within the actual or apparent scope of their authority commits an offence under the law of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the organisation also commits the offence (subject to subsection (2)).”
The caveats provided by subsection 2 are that the organisation will not commit an offence where:
- the offence is wholly committed outside of the UK; and
- the organisation would not commit the offence if that conduct were the organisation’s (rather than the senior manager’s).
The Act has adopted the definition of senior manager used by the ECCTA – i.e. a senior manager is an individual who plays a significant role in:
- the making of decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of the activities of the body corporate or partnership are to be managed or organised; or
- the managing or organising of the whole or a substantial part of those activities.
In practice this may extend to heads of department, operational leads and other roles within the business.
The effect of this new provision
"The effect of this provision is that companies may now be held liable for a far wider range of criminal offences committed by a far wider range of individuals within the company."
The effect of this provision is that companies may now be held liable for a far wider range of criminal offences committed by a far wider range of individuals within the company.
There is now a much clearer route to prosecution with respect to non-economic offences, such as environmental or modern slavery offences. Further, it will no longer be necessary to establish that the board or C-suite committed the offences or approved their commission. It will be enough to prove that a person with decision making power committed the offence, whilst acting in their role.
What should companies be doing about it?
Unlike the failure to prevent offences, there is no defence built into this provision where a company has taken reasonable steps to prevent commission of the offence. The focus therefore falls on ensuring that no one senior manager is in a position where they may cause the company to commit an offence.
Companies will need to update their risk assessments to consider which offences are at highest risk of occurring and whether existing policies and procedures are sufficiently robust to ensure senior managers are unable to operate in high-risk areas without sufficient controls. Corporate culture encouraging both bottom up and top down vigilance will remain important, both to deter criminal behaviour and catch any early warning signs.
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