Failure to Prevent - How can Cifas help?
What is it?
The new ‘Failure to Prevent’ offence will be introduced in 2024 and will see UK organisations potentially face an unlimited fine if they profit from fraud.
Under this new offence, large UK corporations, subsidiaries and partnerships will be liable if fraud is committed by an employee or agent for the organisation’s benefit, and they didn’t have reasonable fraud prevention procedures in place.
Research carried out by Cifas has revealed that 65% of UK corporates are only ‘fairly prepared’ for the introduction of this new legislation, with nearly 10% saying they were not prepared or did not know what it was.
Fraud committed for the benefit of an organisation can be carried out in a number of ways, for instance by making misleading claims as part of a procurement exercise, or making misrepresenting claims about the products or services they sell.
What should organisations do?
The new Failure to Prevent legislation can impose unlimited fines to organisations benefitting from fraud, and that have failed to put ‘reasonable procedures’ in place to prevent this.
If they haven’t done already, UK organisations need to prepare for this new legislation by ensuring they have reasonable procedures in place to prevent fraud, and making sure they have a strong anti-fraud culture that helps employees understand their responsibilities and feel empowered to speak up.
How can Cifas help?
Throughout 2024, we will be holding a series of webinars to help organisations better understand how the new Failure to Prevent legislation will affect their business.
Find out more about our upcoming events here.
In addition, the Cifas Fraud & Cyber Academy has a range of learning and development options to help organisations prepare for the new legislation as well as provide employees with the skills and knowledge to combat fraud, cyber and financial crime.
