Ian Hyde

Corporates face increasing risk of criminal prosecution for tax evasion under a new fraud offence and Labour government The new "failure to prevent fraud" offence, as set out in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, is finally expected to come into force in the first half of 2025, once the government has published the guidance prescribed by the legislation – this will be followed by an implementation period of at least six months.

Observers of British politics may have noticed that all politicians believe there is tax avoidance and tax evasion in the UK and that "something must be done". The specific allocation of the extra £555m annual funding which Labour plans to give HMRC will be confirmed after the election, but amounts are already earmarked for certain areas, in particular the recruitment of an additional 5,000 HMRC compliance officers.

How will use of agency workers and gig workers in the UK be affected, and what steps can be taken now by staffing companies and platforms to minimise the impact? On 13 June the UK Labour Party issued its election manifesto. It confirmed some (mainly still vague) proposals about new legislation to deal with exploitative zero hours arrangements, tax avoidance and new employment protection from day one of employment. Our earlier Insight covered many of the broad policy proposals.