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Corporate death and the law / 1 \
Page 37
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Companies can be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter if there is enough evidence to prosecute a director or senior manager —the "controlling mind" of the company —for manslaughter: this requires evidence of gross negligence.
Opponents of the current law argue that bosses who delegate safety decisions to junior managers escape prosecution, even though serious manasgement failures might have caused a death.
PROSECUTIONS
Decisions to prosecute are made by the HSE and the police working together. Last year Network Rail and Balfour Beatty were charged with corporate manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash ot October 2000. This case has not yet come to trial.
In 1987 a manslaughter prosecution against P&O European Ferries for the 1987 Zeebrugge disaster collapsed. Great Western Trains was acquitted over the 1997 Southall rail crash, although it was fined E1 .5m under health and safety legislation. Thames Trains was lined Um for the 1999 Paddington rail disaster, but again this was a health and safety prosecution rather than corporate manslaughter.
Five small British firms have been found guilty at corporate manslaughter. The first was activity centre OLL — MD Peter Kite was jailed for three years after a 1993 canoeing accident which killed four children.
POSSIBLE NEW LAW The new offence of "corporate killing" would target the corporation (company or local authority for example) —rather than an individual —to be prosecuted for causing a death as a result of serious management failure on the part of the corporation itself. This should make it easier to successfully prosecute the company.
• It is based an failure to set and meet safety standards • Fines will he unlimited • All trials will be held at Crown Courts • Government announcement expected in October
But it could still bring ruin to "decent, ordinary operators who have made a mistake", he argues. "The police are acting because of public pressure, because of the desire of the public to find someone to blame. Accidents don't happen these days — somebody's got to heat fault." • CONTACTS www.dii.gov.uk; www.hse.gov.uk HSE helpline: 08701 545500 The HSE Acciden1 Book £4.75 available from www.hsebooks.co.uk