Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Directors Liability
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Right to defence
Page 97
When DPA negotiations arise, an implicated individual at such a senior level as director is likely to be required to leave the company (even if not legally: practically and realistically), particularly if that individual is facing prosecution. Where an implicated director is able to remain and the company is able to obtain a DPA, a director facing prosecution would be in a difficult position in respect of their own defence. A common term in all UK DPAs is that public statements made by the company and its employees (as authorised by the company) which are contrary to the DPA (including the statement of facts) may constitute a breach of the agreement. Crucially, the term states that this does not extend to ‘any present or former director … in the course of any criminal or civil proceedings instituted against or by the said individual’.1 However, more recent DPAs have gone further to include the caveat: ‘unless such individual is speaking on behalf of [the company]’.2 In this respect, the decision whether the public statement made by an individual should be imputed to the company, for the purpose of determining breach of the DPA, remains at the ‘sole discretion’ of the prosecutor.3