The legislative framework for DPAs can now be found in Schedule 17 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013 passed on 25 April 2013. Whilst a date has yet to be set for these provisions to come into force, the Serious Fraud Office expects DPAs to be available from February 2014. To this end, three consultations have been announced in preparation.

The first consultation, published by the Sentencing Council, invites comments on proposed guidelines in section nine applicable to fraud, bribery and money laundering committed by corporate offenders. Although Sentencing Council guidance is not a pre-condition for the provisions on DPAs entering into force, they are clearly crucial to a corporate entity’s willingness to enter into DPA negotiations and to the prospects of agreement being reached on the terms of a DPA. This consultation is not confined to DPA sentencing and will therefore be of general relevance to companies.

The second consultation is the DPP and Director of the SFO’s consultation on a draft “Deferred Prosecution Agreement Code of Practice”. The consultation is open until 20 September and provides further detail on the necessary elements of a DPA, the procedures for obtaining judicial approval and for dealing with breaches and variations.

A third consultation has been published by the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee, on amendments to the criminal procedure rules to accommodate the proposed DPA process. The draft Code of Practice cross-refers to such rules, and therefore needs to be considered together with any proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Rules once published.

For a more detailed briefing please click here.