Justice for Corporate
Deaths: Royal Assent for Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate
Homicide act
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
News Release (102-07) issued by The Government News Network on 26
July 2007
Companies whose
gross negligence leads to the death of individuals will now face
prosecution for manslaughter under tough new legislation approved today.
Under the new law companies, organisations and, for the first
time, Government bodies face an unlimited fine if they are found
to have caused death due to their gross corporate health and
safety failures.
The Corporate Manslaughter Act is a landmark in law and the
culmination of ten years of campaigning by unions and other groups.
Employees of companies, consumers and other individuals will be
offered greater protection against corporate negligence. The new
law will focus the minds of those in companies and other
organisations by ensuring that they take health and safety
obligations seriously.
Justice Minister Maria Eagle said,
"The Corporate Manslaughter Bill is a ground-breaking piece
of legislation. This is about ensuring justice for victims of
corporate failures. For too long it has been virtually impossible
to prosecute large companies for management failures leading to deaths.
"Today's Act changes this, for the first time companies
and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter on
the basis of gross corporate failures in health and safety. The
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will make it
easier to prosecute companies who fail to protect people.
"We are sending out a very powerful deterrent message to
those organisations which do not take their health and safety
responsibilities seriously."
The Corporate Manslaughter Act:
* will make it easier to prosecute companies and other large
organisations when gross failures in the management of health and
safety lead to death by delivering a new, more effective basis for
corporate liability;
* has reformed the law so that a key obstacle to successful
prosecutions has now been removed. It means that both small and
large companies can be held liable for manslaughter where gross
failures in the management of health and safety cause death, not
just health and safety violations;
* complements the current law under which individuals can be
prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety
offences, where there is direct evidence of their culpability. The
Act builds on existing health and safety legislation - so the new
offence does not impose new regulations on business;
* lifts Crown immunity to prosecution. Crown bodies - such as
Government departments - will be liable to prosecution for the
first time. So the Act will apply to companies and other corporate
bodies, in the public and private sector, Government departments,
police forces and certain unincorporated bodies, such as
partnerships, where these are employers.
Notes for editors
1. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill was
published on 21 July 2006.
2. Further details on the Act are available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corporatemanslaughter2007.htm
3. The Act will come into force on 6 April 2008 and the Ministry
of Justice will issue further guidance for organisations affected
by the Act in the Autumn. Extension of the offence to deaths in
custody will not come into effect on the 6 April, but at a later
date. The Government will keep implementation under review.
4. The Act is about corporate liability, not increasing liability
for individual directors or managers who can already be held to
account through health and safety laws and the common law of manslaughter.
http://www.justice.gov.uk