Human Rights and the Restructuring of Financial Services Regulation in the UK

Abstract

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been provided with the statutory authority to demand the attendance of suspects at its offices and also to demand that information is supplied, irrespective of whether or not the suspect has been charged with a criminal offence. It has been held that the provisions of Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) do protect the defendant from self‐incrimination, and the UK government has been successfully challenged at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over these issues. The powers conferred on the SFO remain in place, but these must now be viewed in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998, which became law in the UK in October 2000; unless the powers of the SFO are reviewed by Parliament, it would seem to be the courts who will take responsibility in the UK for ensuring that the rights of suspects are upheld.

Citation

Johnstone, P. and Haines, J. (2001), "Human Rights and the Restructuring of Financial Services Regulation in the UK", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 179-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026017