Corporate Manslaughter Bill to punish corporations

New legislation makes organisations, not individuals, accountable for manslaughter.

The construction industry has finally received its Corporate Manslaughter Bill after years of waiting. The new legislation was given its first reading in the House of Commons last week.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill will now make it an offence for an organisation, where any of the activities managed or organised by its senior managers cause a person/s death, or amount to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.

Under current legislation, before a company can be convicted for manslaughter, a 'directing mind' of an organisation [a senior individual who can be said to embody the company in its actions and decisions] must also be found guilty of the offence.

The new legislation will apply to corporations and, for the first time, government departments and public bodies will also be held accountable with their Crown immunity now lifted.

However, fines, which will be unlimited, will only be issued to organisations and will not apply to directors or individuals within the company in question.

The laws will affect England, Wales and Scotland, although the Bill will be renamed the Corporate Homicide Bill north of the border.

The second reading debate on the bill will now take place on 10 October, which runs very close to the end of the current Parliamentary session. This will be followed by any amendments to the Bill's clauses and a third reading.

As a rule, it takes about nine months to turn a Bill into legislation, although the fact that the announcement has been made just before the summer recess might result in a slightly longer timetable.

It is estimated that the new legislation will result in an extra 10 to 13 incidences of corporate manslaughter/homicide cases per year following the implementation.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The Bill has been a long time coming. We will study the detail, but hope it will make it easier to bring prosecutions against companies whose negligence has contributed to the deaths of employees or members of the public."

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie added: "We welcome the publication of the Bill.

"At the same time, we res- erve the right to carry on campaigning for changes to the Bill to reflect the case for specific duties to be imposed on directors for custodial sentences."

[Contract Journal, 26 July 2006, p. 6]