Corporate Manslaughter Sentencing

 Council Publishes Consultation Guideline on Corporate Manslaughter
And Health and Safety Offences which cause death

Companies and organisations that cause death through gross breaches of care should face punitive and significant fines, a consultation guideline recently published proposes.

Fines for organisations found guilty of the new offence of corporate manslaughter may be measured in millions of pounds and should seldom be below £500,000.

The new sanction of Publicity Orders forcing companies and organisations to make a statement about their conviction and fine introduced under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act should be imposed in virtually every case.

The consultation guideline proposes that the publicity should be designed to ensure that the conviction becomes known to shareholders and customers in the case of companies and to local people in the case of public bodies, such as local authorities, hospital trusts and police forces. Organisations may be made to put a statement on their websites.