What was the purpose of the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007?

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into effect in 2008 in response to a number of large-scale disasters in the 1990s and acts to impose criminal responsibility on organisations where gross negligence has led to the death of an employee.

What are the provisions of Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007?

The law makes companies, not directors, liable for any deaths due to a general breach of the duty of care by the firm. Individual directors would not be personally liable, as the manslaughter offence will apply only to corporations, including public bodies.

Who does Corporate Manslaughter apply to?

The offence is concerned with corporate liability and does not apply to directors or other individuals who have a senior role in the company or organisation. However, existing health and safety offences and gross negligence manslaughter will continue to apply to individuals.

How does the Corporate Homicide Act 2007 define the offence?

Under the 2007 Act, the offence of Corporate Manslaughter relates to the way in which the relevant activity was managed or organised throughout the company or organisation.

What are the implications under the Corporate Manslaughter and corporate Homicide Act 2007 with regard to prosecution?

Prosecutions will be of the corporate body and not individuals, but the liability of directors, board members or other individuals under health and safety law or general criminal law, will be unaffected. And the corporate body itself and individuals can still be prosecuted for separate health and safety offences.

What is the maximum fine that can be imposed under the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007?

Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007, there is no upper limit on penalties. Major companies convicted of corporate manslaughter will face fines of up to £20m under new sentencing guidelines which suggest that judges should impose fines in relation to the size of the convicted organisation.

What are the implications under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 with regard to prosecution?

What is the maximum fine that can be imposed under the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act?

Is corporate killing a corporate crime?

In the U.S. there is currently no corporate manslaughter law. However, there have been numerous calls in the literature for a “corporate death penalty”. Most recently a study argued that industries that kill more people each year than they employ should have an industry-wide corporate death penalty.

What is the maximum fine that can be imposed under the corporate manslaughter and Homicide Act?

Can a company have mens rea?

There is no dispute that a company is liable to be prosecuted for criminal offences. However, the company being an artificial person cannot have the requisite mens rea, hence the question whether a company could be prosecuted for an offence for which the mandatory sentence is imprisonment.

Who may be prosecuted for breaches of the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007?