The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act come into force on the 6th of April 2008. The Act applies across the whole of the United Kingdom and therefore has ramifications in England and all of the devolved governments.
The Act applies to:
The offences under the Act are concerned with corporate liability of organisations and do not apply, as has been widely reported in various publications, to individual directors, senior managers or other individuals. Neither is it possible to convict an individual of assisting or encouraging the offence.
However, individuals can already be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter and for health and safety offences and this is not changed at all by the act as prosecutions against these individuals will continue to be taken where there is sufficient evidence.
New Offences
The new offence is built on the responsibilities that employers already owe to their employees, in respect of the premises they occupy and the activities they undertake.
For a new offence to apply the organisation concerned must have owed a relevant duty of care to the victim. The offence itself occurs where an organisation is in gross breach of a relevant duty because of the way its activities were managed and organised resulting in a death.
The Act sets out a number of exemptions covering deaths connected with certain public and government functions. These include military operations, policing, emergency response units, child protection and probations personnel.
Duty of care covers any relevant activity such as employer and occupier duties, duties connected to supplying goods and services, commercial activities, construction and maintenance work, using or keeping plant, vehicles or other things.
The Act states that an organisation convicted of any offence can receive:
The courts can also set a remedial order requiring the organisation to address the cause of the fatal injury however this is also yet to come into force.
This Act will make it more important than ever to make sure that companies of all size not only have full board and senior management buy in to the health and safety activities of the company but also have in place documentation to support their health at work policies, these should include as minimum:
All of the above will assist a company in instilling a health and safety mentality within the organisation which will contribute towards a reduced possibility of any form of prosecution.
Information about both the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act and the companies’ health and safety responsibilities are available through Ian Chisholm and Declan Moore at the Glass and Glazing Federation.
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