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Corporte Manslaughter – a new approach |
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The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (“the Act”)
has now been passed and is likely to come into force throughout the UK
in April 2008. David Glass of London based law firm Pritchard
Englefield reviews it's key provisions.
The Act creates a new statutory offence of “corporate manslaughter” (in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and “corporate homicide” (in
Scotland) to replace the common law offence of manslaughter by gross
negligence insofar as it applies to corporate bodies and other
specified institutions (such as government departments, police forces,
partnerships and trade unions and employers’ associations). “Corporate
manslaughter” and “corporate homicide” cover the same ground.
The key provision is Section 1(1) which states:
“An organisation … is guilty of an offence if the way in which its activities are managed or organised –
(a) causes a person’s death, and
(b) amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.”
Section 1(3) adds:-
“An organisation is guilty of an offence under this Section only if the
way in which its activities are managed or organised by its senior
management is a substantial element in the breach referred to in
sub-section (1)”.
Whereas the common law offence of involuntary manslaughter by gross
negligence penalised corporations if it could be proved that the
persons exercising the so-called “directing mind and will” of the
relevant corporation breached the relevant duty of care, the new law
clearly extends the circumstances in which a corporate manslaughter
conviction can be sustained.
There have been a number of well-publicised examples (particularly
involving rail crashes) where manslaughter convictions under the common
law could not be obtained against the companies concerned because of
the narrow way in which the common law offence was defined.
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There are a number of exceptions to the application of the new law
(particularly covering the activities of military forces and others
concerned with emergency and public order maintenance services).
However, where the new law applies, it is anticipated that relevant
organisations could be convicted where the way in which they carry on
business or maintain their operations “falls far below what can
reasonably be expected of the [relevant] organisation in the
circumstances” (Section1(4)(b)).
Conviction can give rise to unlimited fines and the court may also make
“remedial orders” and “publicity orders” requiring the organisation
concerned to take remedial action or to publicise its conviction as the
case may be.
The relationship between a corporate manslaughter offence and other
health and safety provisions will be important, bearing in the mind the
corporate manslaughter offence only applies to organisations and not to
individuals.
The new Act was the result of over ten years of debate following the
original Law Commission Report proposing a new offence of “corporate
killing” and it is hoped will improve standards of business and
operational performance by corporate bodies and other organisations
throughout the UK.
© September 2007 David Glass
All Rights Reserved.
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