UK lockdown – day one

Martin Woods (martin@amlwoods.com) is a former Metropolitan Police Officer and latterly the Head of Financial Crime at Thomson Reuters.

On Monday 23 March 2020, the message from UK government changed, the tone from the top changed. The Prime Minister gave a clear and robust statement in which he told the British public to stay at home. Simultaneously, the policy moved from persuasion, cooperation and doing the right thing (akin to a principles-based approach to compliance) to emergency legislation and laws that have led to the closure of shops and an instruction for people to stay at home.