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Corporate Manslaughter: What You Need To Know

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporatethis amounts to a gross breach of a relevant
Homicide Act 2007 comes into force on 6 Aprilduty of care owed by the organisation to the
2008, and all businesses must therefore takedeceased.
a look at their existing health and safety
regulations, if they don't want to face anThe shift of focus - from the 'directing
unlimited fine plus potential humiliation bymind' to senior managers - in the new offence
'name  and  shame'.is considered to make it easier to obtain
successful  convictions.
The new offence of corporate manslaughter is
committed where an organisation commits aWhat  must  businesses  do  now?
'gross breach' of a 'relevant duty of care',
leading to a person's death. This recentOrganisations should prepare themselves for
change to corporate law and health and safetythe changes in corporate law and health and
law means that it will no longer be necessarysafety law by undertaking a complete and
to identify an individual director guilty ofthorough review of their safety management
gross negligence, all that is required is ansystems and of how they are practically
organisational or gross management failingimplemented. This will necessarily incur
causing  death.costs but these costs are likely to be a
fraction of any potential penalty if found
What  happened  in  the  pastguilty  of  corporate  manslaughter.
Under the existing common law provisions, toThe  penalty
punish an organisation appropriately, the
Prosecution have to prove 'gross negligenceOf course, companies cannot be sent to
manslaughter' by an individual who is part ofprison, so the penalty usually imposed is a
the 'directing mind' of the organisationfinancial one. The Sentencing Guidelines
which  caused  or  contributed  to the death.Council have suggested that on conviction for
an offence of corporate manslaughter, the
This has proved to be an almostcourt, as a starting point, should impose a
insurmountable task, particularly in relationfine which is equal to 5% of the
to large organisations where, in reality,organisation's annual turnover, with the
there is no one individual who could properlyability to go up to 10% or more if there are
be considered part of the 'directing mind' ofaggravating factors. This would, for most
the  organisation.companies, represent a very large fine
indeed.
As a result, governments have long been under
pressure to update corporate law and healthIn addition to a fine, courts can compel the
and safety law in order to force businessesorganisation to 'advertise' their conviction
to be brought to justice in the case of grossin the local or national press on the basis
negligence  leading to the death of a worker.that a 'name and shame' culture may send a
message to other businesses. The idea is that
A  shift  of  focusthe stigma of being convicted of corporate
manslaughter could have a devastating affect
The new offence of corporate manslaughteron a business, and the threat will cause
will be committed if the way in which abusinesses to take more care with their
business' senior managers organise or managehealth and safety regulations.
the activities causes a person's death and



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