A company has become the first in the UK to be charged under the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act. Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings is accused over the death of an employee, who was killed when a pit collapsed in September 2008. The CPS Special Crime Division has stated that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for this offence.
The Company Director is charged with gross negligence manslaughter and could be jailed for life if convicted, whereby the maximum sentence for the firm is an unlimited fine. Both the Director and the company also face other health & safety charges.
The 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act was brought in to make it easier to bring companies to justice over the death of employees. An organisation will be guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities were managed or organised (particularly by senior management) caused a death, and amounted to a gross breach of a duty of care to the person who died.
This prosecution is likely to be the first of many under the new legislation, with many work-related fatalities which occurred after April 2008 currently being investigated by the police.
The message to all organisations can not be clearer – you must ensure your business is properly managing health & safety at all levels and that all applicable legislation and guidance is adhered to. Specifically, suitable and sufficient risk assessments must be carried out by a competent person, in order to assess all reasonably foreseeable hazards in the workplace.
