On 10 June, the Law Commission published its long-awaited Options Paper, with proposals on reforming corporate criminal liability in England and Wales, following the launch of its discussion paper in June 2021. Whilst the Options Paper rejects the much discussed "failure to prevent economic crime" offence, it outlines 10 "options" for strengthening corporate liability, which notably includes the expansion of the failure to prevent model to fraud, and of the identification principle to cover a wider set of senior individuals whose mental acts and states might result in a corporate entity becoming criminally liable. Other proposals include the introduction of failure to prevent offences in relation to a small number of non-economic crimes, making publicity orders available in all cases in which a non-natural person is convicted of an offence, introducing a regime of administratively imposed monetary penalties, introducing civil actions in the High Court based on Serious Crime Prevention Orders, and introducing a requirement for public interest entities to report on anti-fraud procedures, or introducing a requirement akin to Modern Slavery Act statements for large corporations to report on their anti-fraud procedures.

In this final article of our series examining the Options Paper and the future of corporate criminal liability in England and Wales, we examine the Law Commission's proposed options regarding the introduction of failure to prevent offences for non-economic crimes, relating to:

• Overseas human rights abuses;
• Computer misuse; and
• Neglect and ill-treatment of vulnerable persons.

Ultimately, the Law Commission has made it clear that the potential introduction of failure to prevent offences for non-economic crimes is a question of policy. It remains to be seen whether the new Government will consider these proposed offences as necessary legislative updates and, if so, a priority on its agenda.