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.
Prepare for the new legislation and provide your employees with skills and knowledge to combat fraud and financial crime with our Cifas Fraud & Cyber Academy. Identify and stop dishonest conduct by job applicants and employees with our Insider Threat Protect solution. The only solution in the UK that records instances of dishonest conduct by job applicants and employees in the workforce, helping employers and recruiters identify potential threats to their organisation. Click here to find out more.
