Provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) governing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) have come into law, after regulations were laid before Parliament.

Section 194 and 195 of ECCTA came into force on 18 June 2025. The provisions include a statutory definition of a SLAPP and provide for the introduction of new procedural rules so that claims that meet the statutory definition may be struck out before trial. Those rules can be found at 3.4 of the Civil Procedure Rules and provide that the court may strike out a claim if (i) it is a SLAPP for the purposes of ECCTA and (ii) the claimant has failed to show that it is more likely than not that their claim would succeed at trial.

We have commented previously on the progress of various attempts to introduce anti-SLAPP legislation. While many will welcome the coming into force of these provisions, it is noteworthy that they only apply to claims which relate to economic crime.

There have been calls to introduce a general anti-SLAPP law (including a Private Member’s Bill in the previous Parliament, on which we commented here). However, after that Bill failed to become law before the dissolution of Parliament, progress towards broader anti-SLAPP legislation stalled after the new Government signalled that it did not intend to introduce further legislation in this Parliamentary session.

Despite the Government’s position, the previous Private Member’s Bill has been revived and will receive its second reading in the House of Commons at the end of this week. However, it is unlikely to become law given the limited amount of time that will be available for debate.