Companies could be fined between 2.5% and 10% of their turnover for committing the new offence of Corporate Manslaughter. For many companies, this will mean fines of several millions of pounds and for some, fines could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds.
Potentially even more damaging is that the court may also impose a publicity order, which requires the organisation to publicise in a specified manner the fact that it has been convicted of the offence, the specified particulars of the offence, the amount of any fine imposed, and the terms of any remedial order made. The new law is designed to increase the amount of convictions of corporate manslaughter by removing the necessity to identify and establish the guilt of a directing mind. It instead focuses on ‘management failure’, referring to the way in which the organisation's activities were managed or organised.
Guy Bastable, specialist corporate defence partner in the business crime & regulation department of London-based law firm BCL Burton Copeland, said: "Now, more than ever before, it is imperative that organisations and individuals caught up in an investigation following a work-related death obtain expert legal advice from those experienced in dealing with the unique problems that arise when advising a company, its directors and its employees."
New penalties for corporate manslaughter
Published 20th May, 2009 by Neil Nixon
