Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, on what dates each new prosecution was brought forward by the Serious Fraud Office from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2021; and for each of those prosecutions (a) whether the prosecution was into a corporate or an individual and (a) what the outcome was.
From the 1st of January 2016 to 31st of December 2021, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has brought forward 103 prosecutions as a result of their criminal casework. The table below sets-out how many prosecutions were brought forward in each year, whether they relate to a corporate or an individual, and the final outcome. *
The cases investigated by the SFO are complex and it can take a number of years before any defendant(s) can be charged and a trial scheduled. Information relating to the exact date each investigation began is not readily available and providing this information would incur a disproportionate cost.
Corporate | Individual | |||||||
Outcome | Outcome | |||||||
Year | guilty plea | Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) | Discontinued | Conviction after trial | Guilty Plea | Acquitted | Awaiting Trial | Total |
2016 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 27 | ||
2017 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 31 |
2018 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | |||
2019 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | ||
2020 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 18 | ||||
2021 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 10 | |||
Total | 4 | 11 | 2 | 20 | 18 | 26 | 22 | 103 |
*We have used the term ‘brought forward’ to mean the date a charge was instigated against an individual or corporate.Detailed information regarding SFO prosecutions, including the date a charge was instigated can be found on their website: https://www.sfo.gov.uk/our-cases/