Corporate manslaughter guidelines have been reviewed by the Sentencing Guideline Council and should be tougher - 17th February 2010

New guidelines on sentencing for corporate manslaughter have come into force this week.

The Sentencing Guidelines Council is to set out the principles to aid courts when dealing with workplace accidents and companies who have caused a death either by a gross breach of care or where breaches of health and safety requirements are a significant cause of death.

The new guidelines will recommend that fines for companies guilty of corporate manslaughter should fall below £500,000 only in certain circumstances but that when deciding the appropriate fine account should be taken of the particular company’s financial circumstances.

The SGC looked into factors which increased the seriousness of a particular offence including the foreseeability of serious injury, whether non-compliance was common and widespread and how far up the organisation the breach went.

Other factors which could determine the companies appropriate level of fine would be the number of deaths and serious injuries at work due to inadequate measures, injury to vulnerable people, failure to heed warnings or respond to near misses of a similar nature, cost-cutting and deliberate failure to obtain or comply with relevant licences.

Lord Justice Anthony Hughes, a member of the SGC and Vice President of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), said: “Fines cannot and do not attempt to value a human life – compensation will be assessed separately in these cases. These are serious offences and the fines must be punitive and substantial and have an impact on the company or organisation."

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