Is The UK Failing to Prevent White Collar Crime?

New figures were recently released by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) in relation to white collar crime offences and the numbers reveal that corporate crime is healthy, thriving and the authorities must take heed.

The Statistics

The Ministry of Justice made their recent announcement concerning data compiled in relation to 2015. The figures for last year show that 9,401 white collar cases were prosecuted, up from 9,343 in 2014. Until 2015, prosecutions for white collar offences had in fact fallen year-on-year since 2011, however 2011 represented a century record of 11,261 defendants who faced white collar charges.

The statistics detailed a substantial increase in cyber-crime, while the increase only saw an additional 6 cases in 2015, this represented a 36 percent increase in reported cyber-crime cases, a rise to 61 prosecutions last year up from 45 cases in the previous year.

Included for the first time in MOJ statistics, data covering Internet crime which disclosed an estimated 5.1m incidents of members of the public falling victim to online fraud, while an approximate 2.5m incidents were reported for offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

The Response

The UK Government has previously responded to white collar crime with various measures ranging from robust legislation such as the Bribery Act 2010, widely regarded as one of the toughest pieces of anti-corruption legislation not just in Europe but in the world. In 2013 the UK established the National Crime Agency (NCA), the lead body primarily concerned in economic crime, cyber-crime and enforcing UK anti-money laundering laws.

More recently, at the Anti-Corruption Summit 2016, the UK Government unveiled a range of new measures to assist in the UK's fight against white collar crime. Most notably, the government...