Newsletters
Autumn News
Corporate Manslaughter
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. The first prosecution has been brought under this Act against a company whose employee died when a pit in which he was taking soil samples collapsed and crushed him.It is a reminder that all employers have to consider the risks that their employees may be exposed to. The management have the ultimate responsibility for doing whatever they can to minimise those risks, and may suffer severe penalties if they fail in that responsibility.