First firm charged under new manslaughter laws

A site investigation specialist has become the first firm in the UK to be charged under the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act.

Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings is accused over the death of employee Alexander Wright, 27, who was killed when a pit collapsed in September 2008.

The junior geologist was taking soil samples at a site near Stroud in Gloucestershire at the time.

Company director Peter Eaton is charged with gross negligence manslaughter and could be jailed for life if convicted.

The maximum sentence for the firm is an unlimited fine. Both Mr Eaton and the company also face health and safety charges.

The 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act was brought in to make it easier to bring companies to justice over the death of employees.

Kate Leonard, of the CPS Special Crime Division, told the BBC: "Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the person who died.

"A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way activities were organised by senior management.

"I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for this offence."

Mr Eaton is due before magistrates in Stroud on 17 June.