Corporate manslaughter bill: the new law
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill will come into force on 6 April 2008 creating a new offence of corporate manslaughter, or corporate homicide in Scotland.
The new offence is a corporate offence applying to companies, partnerships and other organisations including a number of government departments and the police force.
A company can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter if:
- the way in which its activities were managed or organised by senior management was a substantial element of the breach
- the breach of duty was ‘gross;’ that is, the conduct of the organisation fell far below what could reasonably have been expected of them in the particular circumstances
It is clear that the aim of the Act is to make it easier to secure a conviction and for the fine imposed to be unlimited to better reflect the extent of the breach and circumstances of the death. The court can also require the company to publicise the offence in any way deemed appropriate so potentially leading to serious loss of reputation.
Whereas under the old regime, it was necessary to demonstrate gross negligence on the part of an individual, under the new legislation it will be enough for the prosecution to show an aggregation of failures in management systems and procedures as a whole amounted to a gross breach of duty.
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