Serious Fraud Investigation to be Overhauled?

Improving the Investigation and Prosecution of Serious Fraud
Fraud Advisory Panel Report
May 2006
The SPG believes that neither the new measures announced by the
Government and the courts in 2005, nor the proposals contained in
the interim report produced by the Government’s Fraud Review, nor
the White Paper A Fairer Deal for Legal Aid will deliver an
effective regime for the investigation and prosecution of serious
fraud. The SPG considers that more imaginative and radical
solutions are required, and it hopes that the recommendations set
out in this report will assist the Government in its
deliberations. However, whether or not the standards of fairness
are assessed by reference to Article 6 of the European Convention
of Human Rights or the more ancient formulation in Chapter 40 of
Magna Carta , it is trite to observe that every miscarriage of
justice, whether it involves the acquittal of the guilty or the
conviction of the innocent, grotesquely undermines the rule of
law. In putting forward imaginative and radical proposals to solve
the problems engendered by the investigation and prosecution of
serious fraud, this overriding principle must always remain the
paramount concern.