Sentencing Council Guidelines, Prosecutors’ Code of Practice to be released in the coming days

The SFO has confirmed that deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”) will be available in the UK from 24 February 2014.

DPAs are a proposed alternative to criminal prosecution, which are intended to address the commission of economic crimes by commercial organisations.

Under a DPA, a company will agree to certain conditions, which may include a financial penalty, reparation to victims, repayment of profits and measures to prevent future offending, as well as an agreed statement of facts setting out its wrongdoing.

The prosecutor will lay – but not immediately proceed with – criminal charges against the company.  The charges will be withdrawn after a specified period if the company has complied with the DPA conditions, with the result that the company will not formally be convicted of an offence.  The DPA will be a public document, approved by a judge in open court.

Code of Practice

In addition, the SFO has confirmed that the Director of the SFO and the DPP plan to release the Code of Practice for the use of DPAs in early February – before DPAs become available.

This follows a joint consultation on the draft Code of Practice which took place between June and September last year.

The Code of Practice is intended to supplement the statutory provisions on the DPA process by setting out the decision-making process to be followed by the DPP and the Director of the SFO when agreeing to a DPA; applying for judicial approval; and overseeing the subsequent operation of any approved DPA.

Sentencing Guidelines

Finally, the Sentencing Council will publish the final sentencing guidelines for companies convicted of fraud, bribery or money laundering on its website on Friday, 31 January.

These guidelines for corporate offenders, which form part of a general set of guidelines for the offences of fraud, bribery and money laundering which will take effect in October, are being published to coincide with the introduction of DPAs in late February.

The finalised Guidelines will clearly be of interest to a corporate entity considering whether to seek to enter into DPA negotiations as they will affect the prospects of agreement being reached.