Article Idea re First Conviction for Corporate Manslaughter

Following last week’s first conviction of a company under the new corporate manslaughter legislation, we hope your readers will be interested in the following from health and safety law specialist Guy Bastable of BCL Burton Copeland who sets out the implications for directors: • On 15 February 2011, Cotswold Geotechnical was convicted of corporate manslaughter following the death of an employee and was fined £385,000, which amounted to 115% of its turnover for the year of the accident, to be payable over ten years. This was notwithstanding the fact that the sentencing judge considered that the fine and payment plan might well cause the company’s liquidation. • The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force in April 2008 and removes the necessity under the old law to identify and establish the guilt of a “directing mind”, a senior individual who could be said to embody the company in his actions and decisions. Instead, the Act concentrates on the way in which the organisation’s activities are managed or organised, commonly referred to as a “management failure”, and whether that caused the death and was a gross breach of a relevant duty of care. • The Act adds to the range of offences available to the police and the CPS when investigating/prosecuting an organisation and its employees following a fatal accident. • In 2010, the Sentencing Guidelines Council issued its definitive guidelines for sentencing organisations for corporate manslaughter or health and safety offences that cause death. The guidelines specify that fines for organisations found guilty of corporate manslaughter may be millions of pounds and should seldom be below £500,000. For health and safety offences that cause death, fines from £100,000 up to hundreds of thousands of pounds should be imposed. • The guidelines provide for payment by instalments, but, in the case of a large organisation, the fine should be payable within 28 days. • Bearing in mind the small size of Cotswold Geotechnical, in cases of serious breach, large originations can expect much larger fines and very large organisations can expect fines in the millions. Please let us know if you would like Guy to extend this into a full article for you. Editors Notes: Contacts: Guy Bastable, BCL Burton Copeland: gbastable@bcl.com 020 7430 2277 www.bcl.com Lauren Alexander, Maltin PR: lauren@maltinpr.com 07540 347 001/ 020 7887 1357 www.maltinpr.com A photograph of Guy is available at: http://www.maltinpr.com/guy-bastable Biography of Guy Bastable Guy Bastable is a specialist corporate defence solicitor and a recognised leading expert in fatal accidents, corporate manslaughter, and health and safety breaches. He is a partner in the Business Crime & Regulation department of London-based law firm BCL Burton Copeland, which is a pre-eminent law firm in the areas of business crime and regulatory enforcement, providing advice and representation to organisations and individuals nationwide and internationally. BCL regularly advises in relation to the investigation and prosecution of allegations of corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, and health and safety breaches arising out of a fatal accident.