The ping pong between the Houses on the scope of the proposed failure to prevent fraud offence continues. In the debate on 18 October, the Government continued to refuse to give way on its belief that it is disproportionate to apply the offence to anything other than the largest companies, and many Lords continued to express how illogical this point of view is. In an attempt to reach compromise, the Lords has now proposed a slightly higher threshold for a “small organisation” exemption, rather than the previous “micro-organisation” proposal – which would exempt companies meeting 2 out of the criteria of
- turnover of not more than £10.2m
- balance sheet total of not more than £5.1m
- not more than 50 employees.
This was approved on a division and now goes back to the Commons to be discussed on 25 October.