CECA members were recently joined at a roundtable discussion by experts from Burges Salmon’s Corporate Crime & Investigations team to learn about the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) 2023.
In this short write up, Ben Goodwin, CECA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, looks at why ECCTA matters for the civil engineering community and some of the key points from the roundtable session. The information in this post is general only and should not be relied on as legal advice.
ECCTA introduced a new offence of failure to prevent fraud, which came into force in September 2025 with the aim of holding large businesses and organisations to account if they fail to put in place “reasonable” procedures to prevent fraud.
The offence applies to partnerships and corporates that meet at least two of the following criteria:
- More than 250 employees
- More than £36m turnover
- More than £18m in total assets
Members of corporate groups which satisfy two or more of those conditions can also commit the offence and even organisations that don’t meet the above criteria are likely to be expected to have their own prevention procedures in place by “Large Organisations” in their supply chains.
Under the new offence, organisations can become criminally liable for fraudulent acts by anyone who performs services for or on behalf of the organisation – including employees, agents and others in their supply chains. The fragmented nature of the civil engineering community, largely symptomatic of the complex supply chains that exist within the infrastructure sector, make it particularly vulnerable to fraud. Understanding ECCTA is therefore a must for CECA members.
Organisations should refer to Home Office Guidance when developing their prevention procedures. The guidance provides that procedures should be informed by the following six principles:
- Risk assessment
- Proportionate, risk-based fraud prevention procedures
- Due diligence
- Communication, including training
- Monitoring and review of the above
- Top-level commitment
The roundtable discussion threw up several interesting questions and talking points.
Including:
- How far down the supply chain of a large contractor does the new offence apply?
- The extent to which “reasonable” prevention procedures should cover businesses that you may not directly be working with.
- Changes to the way in which corporates can be held criminally liable for economic crimes by their “senior managers”.
Each of these issues is pertinent for CECA members and it’s important that action is being taken to ensure awareness of ECCTA, and ultimately compliance.
The bedding in period for the legislation has been and gone, so now is the time for action.
If you would like to connect with Burges Salmon to know more please do get in touch with Andrew Matheson or Sam Aldous.
Over the coming weeks and months, CECA will be hosting other roundtable discussions on subjects including the introduction of the Single Construction Regulator, the Railways Bill, infrastructure pipeline development and the impact of water sector reform. If you would like to know more get in touch at enquiries@ceca.co.uk.