Health & Safety Update (November 2009)
Corporate Manslaughter Fines "Should be £500,000+"
Companies and organisations that cause death through gross
breaches of care could face fines of more than £500,000 and be
forced to make a statement about offences on their website. These
are the proposals in a consultation guideline published by the
Sentencing Guidelines Council. The Sentencing Guidelines Council's
role is to encourage consistency of sentencing in all courts in
England and Wales, supporting judges and magistrates in their
decision-making. It is an independent body with both judicial and
non-judicial members, chaired by the Lord Chief Justice.
The guidelines state:
- fines for organisations found guilty of the 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 all cases
- 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 website.
The guideline also deals with health and safety offences in the
workplace that cause death. Fines in these cases should seldom be
less than £100,000 and may be measured in hundreds of thousands of
pounds or more.