SFO speaks on faster case resolution

Nick Ephgrave, SFO Director, has spoken on SFO’s history and his plans for the future.  He wants to solve cases more quickly, and spoke of a number of tactics he plans to use. These include a more rigorous and intrusive review process with a new range of investigative techniques, and also making use of what he called “technology assisted review” to use machine learning to assist SFO’s disclosure obligations and hopefully provide a quicker review process.

He moved on to speak about the importance of whistleblowers, and whether they could and should be offered incentives. His view was that whistleblowers should be paid, as is the case in the US. He is also keen to encourage assisting offenders – saying this will help investigations move more quickly, and offenders can benefit from reductions in ultimate sentencing if they are co-operative.