Serious Fraud Office

(asked on 22nd July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what the Serious Fraud Office’s conviction rate was for (a) individuals and (b) corporations in 2020-21.


Answered by
Michael Ellis Portrait
Michael Ellis
This question was answered on 10th September 2021

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), by its specialist nature, takes on a relatively small number of large, complex economic crime cases which can take several years to investigate. This means that small changes in case numbers can lead to significant fluctuations in in the SFO’s conviction rate.

Against this context, in 2020-21 the SFO’s conviction rate for individuals was 67 percent, which included three convictions in the $1.7bn Unaoil bribery case and one guilty plea in the Petrofac bribery case. No corporations were brought to trial in 2020-21. The SFO also secured two Deferred Prosecution Agreements against corporates in 2020-21, returning £47.4m in fines and penalties to the UK taxpayer and compelling these organisations to reform.

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