Following Royal Assent being given to the Crime and Courts Bill last week, US-style plea bargaining, called deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), could be in place in England and Wales by early next year.
A DPA is an agreement between the prosecutor and a company that a criminal prosecution for an economic offence, for example bribery, corruption, fraud, or money laundering, will be deferred or postponed if certain conditions are met.
The new Act will allow prosecutors such as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) or Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to come to an agreement on sanctions in lieu of prosecution.
Under the new Act, the agreement will be made in open court and details of the wrongdoing and sanctions published. Depending on the circumstances of the case, these may include substantial financial penalties, the need to compensate victims and submitting to regular reviews and monitoring.
If the prosecutor is satisfied that the organisation has fulfilled its obligations by the end of the deferral period there will be no prosecution, but if the conditions are not met then the firm could still be prosecuted.
The legislation has been welcomed by many legal advisers and is seen as the natural follow-on from the Bribery Act 2010 as a tool to combat white collar crime.
Prior to the passage of the Bill, a consultation carried out by the Ministry of Justice last year found that 86 per cent of respondents backed the introduction of DPAs and the SFO has long lobbied for DPAs to be introduced domestically. In America, DPAs raise $2.5bn a year in penalties, so will also be a welcome source of income.