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Corporate Manslaughter Act Passes Its First Verdict

23 February 2011

Directors and senior management of organizations must now be on their guard, as the Corporate Manslaughter Act passed its first ruling against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings. The sentencing that was heard on 15 February 2011 followed the death of an employee and the jury found the system of work "wholly and unnecessarily dangerous". Cotswold was convicted and faces a fine of £385,000, which is less than the Sentencing Guidelines Council Guidelines for corporate manslaughter that usually runs into millions of pounds.

The Corporate Manslaughter Act was given Royal assent on 26 July 2007 and the offence came in to force on 6 April 2008. It is called Corporate Manslaughter in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Corporate Homicide in Scotland.

The Act doesn't put down any new regulations but does specifically mandate organisations to stringently follow the health and safety requirements. Companies and organizations also need to comply with health and safety law in order to avoid any breach of the new provisions. The senior management in particular must review the health and safety requirements of the company periodically, since in the event of any mishap they would be personally liable for any claims brought against them.

Possible penalties an organisation stands to face if convicted include unlimited fines, remedial orders and publicity orders. Remedial and publicity orders entail taking measures to remedy any failure on the part of the management in adherence to the health and safety law and publicising the conviction of the offence by the organisation in question, including the fines it incurred and remedial steps it needs to undertake.

A typical case will be handled with the police investigating suspected cases of corporate manslaughter/homicide. Prosecution decisions will be made by the Crown Prosecution Service (England and Wales), the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services (Scotland) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (Northern Ireland).

Krishna Buddhiraju