UK to extend corporate manslaughter law The UK Home Secretary yesterday set out tough new laws to prosecute companies and organisations whose ‘gross failure’ at senior management level results in a fatality. The draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill will update existing laws on corporate killing. The proposed new criminal offence of corporate manslaughter will apply when someone has been killed because the senior management of a corporation has ‘grossly failed to take reasonable care for the safety of employees or others’. This tackles the key problem with the current law: the need to show that a single individual at the very top of a company is personally guilty of manslaughter before the company can be prosecuted. The new offence will mean that courts can look at a wider range of management conduct than at present. It focuses responsibility on the working practices of the organisation, as set by senior managers, rather than limiting investigations to questions of individual gross negligence by company bosses. The new offence will be clearly linked to the standards required under existing health and safety laws. The criminal liability of individual directors will not be affected by the proposals. Corporate manslaughter is an offence committed by organisations rather than individuals and will therefore carry a penalty of an unlimited fine rather than a custodial sentence. Ministers have stressed that no new burdens will be placed on companies that already comply with health and safety legislation. Organisations taking a conscientious approach to their current obligations have nothing to fear. The proposals will apply to Crown bodies, such as government departments, as well as the wider public sector and industry. They create a broad level playing field between public and private sectors and apply when both are carrying out similar activities, for example: * Ensuring safe working practices for their employees (e.g. that staff are properly trained and equipment is in a safe condition); * Maintaining the safety of their premises (e.g. ensuring that lifts are properly maintained and fire precautions taken); and * When providing goods and services to members of the public, or when operating commercially (e.g. providing transport services, operating care homes or running hospitals). The draft legislation is also available on the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk
•Date: 24th March 2005 • Region: UK •Type:
Article •Topic:
BC general |
