Plain-English guides on Section 250 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, SM&CR obligations, and compliance evidence standards for FCA-regulated firms.
You're evaluating compliance tools with less than five weeks to the Section 250 deadline. The wrong choice leaves you with evidence that doesn't hold up. Here are the 7 criteria that separate purpose-built Section 250 software from generic compliance tools repurposed for the job.
Section 250 doesn't stop at your firm's own employees. If you rely on significant third parties — sub-advisers, outsourced service providers, key introducers — their Section 250 compliance is part of your risk picture. Here's what you need to request and retain.
June 29, 2026 is five weeks away. For most FCA-regulated firms, five weeks is enough time to complete the Section 250 gap analysis, declaration cycle, and board evidence pack — but only if you start now. Here is what each week needs to look like.
The Section 250 compliance process has five distinct phases: gap identification, declaration cycle, counterparty requests, board evidence, and ongoing monitoring. This checklist covers every step.
The board evidence pack is the centrepiece of your Section 250 compliance defence. If the FCA investigates your firm, this is what your lawyers will hand over. Here's what it must contain — and why format matters as much as content.
Not all compliance documentation is equal in a court or FCA investigation. Section 250 requires evidence that is immutable, timestamped, and produced through a documented, traceable process. Here is what that means in practice.
Many compliance teams assume that if their SM&CR register is in order, they are covered for Section 250. They are not. The two frameworks target different populations with different standards of evidence. Here is what you need to know.
SM&CR divides the regulatory population at FCA-authorised firms into three tiers. Understanding where your employees fall — and where they don't — is the starting point for any Section 250 gap analysis.
Section 250 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 is one of the most significant expansions of corporate criminal liability in UK law in a generation. It attributes criminal conduct by "senior managers" to their organisations — and the s.250(3) functional test for who qualifies as a senior manager reaches far beyond the existing SM&CR framework. It takes effect on June 29, 2026.
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