ABSTRACT
Unlike most Continental European states, the UK lacks a unified criminal code. This has led to a state of affairs where statutes imposing criminal sanctions on companies have been enacted into law on a piecemeal and sporadic basis. The relevant statutes are not necessarily even to be found within the body of the ‘criminal law’. For example, there are many provisions in the Companies Act 2006 that have criminal penalties attached to them, although this is certainly not primarily designed to be a criminal statute. There is also a large body of quasicriminal or regulatory statutes that impose criminal sanctions on companies for violations. The Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is an example of such a regulatory law.
