The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act came into force on 6 April this year. Here we will explain the law as it stands now, the new law, the sort of penalties which will follow a conviction and how you might guard your company against conviction.
In the about 400 people are killed in work-related incidents each year. However, to date, only 34 companies have been prosecuted and only seven convicted of corporate manslaughter. This has been because of the difficulties of the present law.
To prove corporate manslaughter, an individual in the company must have committed gross negligent manslaughter. The individual must have owed a duty of care towards the deceased which was breached and that the breach was so great as to be classified as gross negligence.
There have only been seven convictions of corporate manslaughter and all have been against small companies where an individual has been easily identified – the director and the company are one and the same.
Larger companies often work with diffuse management systems and delegated responsibility which means no single individual can easily be identified, leading to large companies avoiding responsibility for deaths.
As from 6 April 2008, a company will be guilty of the new offence: “if the way in which its activities are managed or organised”, by its senior management,“ amount to a gross breach of the duty of care” it owes to its employees, the public or other individual, and those failings caused the person's death.
The new offence does not rely on one individual being found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, but will consider the wider corporate picture, looking collectively at the actions, or failings of the company's senior management.
Penalties include an unlimited fine, remedial orders and publicity orders.
If companies try to delegate health and safety responsibilities to non-senior managers, this in itself may amount to a gross failure to ensure safe working practices. To act responsibly and legally, a company should appoint someone at board level responsible for corporate heath and safety who isdirectly accountable. This is summarised in the back of the leading health and safety at work booklet – http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf which gives a 4-point agenda showing how health and safety must be planned, delivered, monitored and reviewed.
For more information or advice on corporate manslaughter, please contact Jeanette Whyman.
