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D-Day on the way for new corporate manslaughter law Companies and other organisations need to ensure that they have the right health and safety arrangements in place ahead of the new Corporate Manslaughter Act, which takes effect from 6 April 2008. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 creates a criminal offence that will apply when someone has been killed because senior management “grossly failed” to take reasonable care of the safety of their employees or any other people. The new Act replaces existing law that makes it very difficult to carry out a prosecution for corporate manslaughter, because a single individual at the very top of a company must be shown to be personally guilty before the company can be prosecuted. Organisations affected by the Act include:
John Dyne, managing director of Dyne Solicitors, has been raising awareness of the new Act by holding a seminar on the subject at the firm’s Tattenhall offices on 13 March, which will be repeated on 1 April. He also spoke on the subject at a seminar for 150 delegates from the waste management sector, held in Wigan on 29 February by the Chartered Institute of Waste Management and Envirolink Northwest. He said: “Corporate manslaughter will continue to be an extremely serious offence, reserved for the very worst cases of corporate mismanagement leading to death. Penalties will include an unlimited fine, remedial orders and publicity orders. “The new offence will support well managed organisations by targeting those which cut costs by taking unjustifiable risks with people’s safety, so companies and other organisations need to be aware of how they could be affected by the new Act and to put in place proper arrangements for managing health and safety, to ensure that they are compliant with the law.” |
