SFO Annual Report and Accounts

31 Jul 2017 01:38 PM

The SFO Annual Report and Accounts for 2016-17 has been laid before Parliament today.

Statement of purpose and activities

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is a small independent non-ministerial Government department under the superintendence of the Attorney General. It was established by the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 1987 and commenced operations in 1988. It is part of the UK criminal justice system covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

The SFO’s purpose is to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute cases of serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption. In addition, the SFO recovers the proceeds of those crimes it investigates and assists overseas jurisdictions in their investigations into serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption.

The SFO has unique powers under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 to require attendance at interview or the production of information or, in certain circumstances, to apply for a warrant to enter and search premises to take possession of information. The SFO has multi-disciplinary case teams of lawyers, investigators, forensic accountants, external counsel and other experts, led by a case controller. This joint investigatory prosecutorial case-team structure is known as the ‘Roskill’ model.

Click here for the full report