Emma RadmoreThe Crime and Policing Act 2026 will expand the identification doctrine from 29 June 2026. s250 of the Act replaces the ECCTA provisions that expanded the doctrine for specific economic crime offences only.
Under the new offence, where a senior manager (a person who plays a key role in the making of decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of the activities of the entity are to be managed or organised, or who actually manages or organises the whole or a substantial part of the activities) of any body corporate or partnership (including entities formed outside the UK) acting within the actual or apparent scope of their authority commits an offence under the law of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the organisation will in principle also commit the offence.
The organisation will only not commit the offence if either all of the relevant conduct occurred outside the UK or if the conduct would not be an offence if it were the conduct of the organisation itself rather than the individual manager.
The provisions of the CPA are slightly different to ECCTA in that ECCTA explicitly includes within the meaning of “offence” attempts, conspiracies and aiding and abetting the offence, and ECCTA specifies that the organisation still would commit an offence where all the conduct was outside the UK if the organisation would have been guilty of the offence if it had carried out that conduct in that location.