At a recent All-Party Parliamentary Group and Spotlight on Corruption event, the UK’s newly appointed anti-corruption champion Baroness Hodge repeated calls for a new offence that would hold “professional enablers”, including lawyers and accountants, liable for failing to prevent economic crime.
In an enforcement environment where organisations are increasingly expected to take proactive, rather than reactive, steps to avoid prosecution for even passive involvement in economic crime, we explore what these recent calls mean for professionals in these fields, and what firms can be doing to ensure they remain compliant.
What are professional enablers?
Professional enablers are individuals and firms who, through their professional services, effectively facilitate economic crime. This often takes the form of assisting the movement of illicit finance, money laundering, or sanctions evasion, as well as facilitating Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (“SLAPPs”).
In the last few years, and particularly in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the volume has been rising on calls for professional enablers to face specific and robust enforcement action for their roles in enabling, or in failing to prevent, economic crime.
At the same event, Baroness Hodge described a cross-party consensus, ahead of the introduction of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2023 (“ECCTA”) to include an offence specifically aimed to tackle professional enablers, penalising them for failing to prevent money laundering and economic crime. This offence did not make it into the final Act. However, several steps have been taken to mean the writing is still very much on the wall for professional enablers.
ECCTA changes
Failure to Prevent Fraud
On 1 September 2025, the new offence of Failure to Prevent Fraud under s.199 of ECCTA will come into effect. This will mean that large organisations who fail to prevent a fraud from being committed by their ‘associated persons’ for the (direct or indirect) benefit of their business, will be criminally liable, unless they can demonstrate that they had ‘reasonable procedures’ in place at the time to prevent the offence from occurring.
The new offence joins existing ‘failure to prevent’ offences in the Bribery Act 2010 and the Criminal Finances Act 2017 of failure to prevent bribery and facilitation of tax evasion.
All these offences mean that, even if an organisation did not instruct or intend for criminality to occur within their business, they will be held strictly liable for it, absent reasonable procedures in place to prevent it.
It is highly likely that those in regulated professions and industries who may meet the definition of professional enabler will face higher levels of scrutiny, and higher standards as to what will constitute ‘reasonable procedures’, even in the absence of a specific professional enabler offence.
The Legal Services Objective
Regulatory bodies are simultaneously ramping up their efforts to hold firms accountable. ECCTA added a new regulatory objective to the Legal Services Act 2007 of ‘promoting the prevention and detection of economic crime”.
The Legal Services Act provides the regulatory objectives for, among others, the Law Society (and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) (regulating solicitors) and the General Council of the Bar and the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) (regulating barristers).
This new regulatory objective means that lawyers must actively work to prevent economic crime, or face regulatory action, including being struck off.
Again, the new regulatory objective indicates that there will be enhanced scrutiny and standards expected of legal professionals in the months and years to come in the economic crime space.
Recent enforcement action
Recent enforcement action against professional services firms emphasises the real impact of failing to take preventative steps to prevent your business being used to facilitate economic crime. Examples this month alone include:
- Herbert Smith Freehills’ former Moscow office was fined £465,000 in March 2025 by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) for a ‘pattern of failings’ including inadequate due diligence and sanctions screening.
- The Financial Reporting Council fined accounting giant PwC £4.5 million for failures in relation to the audit of Wyelands Bank and its funding arrangements with the GFG Alliance.
Looking ahead: NECC and NCA Strategy
The National Economic Crime Centre (the “NECC”) and the National Crime Agency (“NCA”) have published a new 2024 – 2026 cross-system strategy, bolstered by the UK government’s second Economic Crime Plan (2023). The plan sets out a series of strategic objectives to overhaul the public and private sector response to economic crime, focusing on the role of professional enablers.
The strategy involves improved information sharing between the investigation and enforcement agencies (such as the NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”), the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), HMRC, Companies House and the CPS, among others.
The aim of the strategy is to disrupt professional enablers, to educate those in the sector on their responsibilities, and where necessary, to speed up investigations and prosecutions.
Capital Law Business Crime and Investigations team
We anticipate that the:
- New ECCTA routes to corporate criminal liability
- Legal services objective under ECCTA
- Latest trends in enforcement
- NECC / NCA joint strategy and
- Recent comments of Baroness Hodge, the UK government’s appointed anti-corruption champion
Together paint a clear picture of a likely enforcement focus on those in the professional services sector who fail in their duties to prevent economic crime.
With less than 6 months to go until the coming into force of the Failure to Prevent Fraud offence, we strongly advise our fellow professional services professionals to ensure that their compliance procedures are ‘ECCTA ready’ and that their houses are in order.
How can we help?
Our Business Crime and Investigations team comprises three ex-Serious Fraud Office enforcement officers; two former prosecutors and a forensic accountant investigator. We are uniquely situated in the market to advise your practice on the current enforcement environment and its compliance with changing legislation, without charging City rates. For a discussion on the advice and services we can offer your business, please get in touch.
