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Embargoed,
12.01 a.m. 22 Sept. 2000
Serious Weakness in Home Office Proposals to Reform
Law on Manslaughter
- Government Proposals let
Company Directors off Lightly
- Investigation Proposals
will reduce, not increase, Corporate Accountability
- Proposals will allow Government
Bodies to Escape Prosecution
- Proposals will allow British
Companies that kill abroad to escape Prosecution
There is a serious risk that Company
Directors will continue to escape prosecution for manslaughter
under the Home Office proposals unless the Government
imposes, by law, safety duties upon directors, says
the Centre for Corporate Accountability in its detailed
response to the government's consultation document.
"The Home Office has concentrated too much on
the accountability of "companies" at the expense
of the accountability of "company directors"
- even though it is directors who actually control companies
and make the key decisions that will determine whether
a company operates in a safe manner," said
David Bergman, Director of the CCA when he handed in
the Centre's response to the Home Office today.
"Ensuring that
companies are accountable is important - and we support
the new proposed offence of "corporate killing"
- but this should not mean that company directors
can escape manslaughter prosecution when it is they
who are the real offenders. In addition, it is only
when company directors face the threat of imprisonment
that will they give sufficient priority to safety
and ensure that the activities of their company are
safe."
The new proposed manslaughter
offences are a distinct improvement upon the current
law. They remove the need to prove that company directors
had a civil law "duty of care" towards the
person who died - something that rarely exists except
in the most exceptional circumstances, and has been
one of the main reasons why so few directors have been
prosecuted under the current law.
However the proposed offences will still require the
prosecution to show that company directors had a positive
legal duty to act, when the allegation against them
is that they failed to act and that their failure
was reckless or grossly careless. This is significant
because most allegations against company directors relate
to their failures and omissions, not their actions,
and company directors have no positive legal duties
to act in relation to the safety of their company.
As a result, assuming the Home Office proposals come
law, company directors will continue to escape prosecution
when their reckless or grossly careless omissions
were a cause of a death."It must be a Government
priority to impose some duties upon company directors
in relation to ensuring the safety of their company",
said David Bergman
Under the Home Office proposals, company directors may
not only escape prosecution for the new manslaughter
offences - they will also escape criminal accountability
even when they "significantly contribute"
to their company committing the proposed offence of
'corporate killing'. This is because the Home Office
has only proposed that those directors in this position
be subject to possible "disqualification"
as directors.
"It is our view that company directors who are
not guilty of manslaughter, but guilty of significantly
contributing to the corporate offence should be able
to be prosecuted for a separate, lesser, offence which
can result, on conviction, in a sentence of imprisonment,"
said David Bergman
Investigation/Prosecution
Another serious problem with the Home Office proposals
is that they allow the regulatory agencies like the
Health and Safety Executive to take over, from the police
and crown prosecution service, the investigation and
prosecution of the new manslaughter offences.
"Manslaughter
offences should be not be investigated and prosecuted
by under-funded regulatory agencies with no experience
of investigating serious crime with a very poor record
in the investigation and prosecution of the offences
for which it is currently responsible. The police
must remain the prime investigating body although
it must work together with regulatory agencies"
said David Bergman
The Centre for Corporate Accountability
has proposed to the Home Office a series of reforms
in this area, including the establishment within police
forces of specialised units with responsibility for
investigating deaths resulting from corporate activities.
"Corporate Killing"
The Centre for Corporate Accountability supports the
Home Office proposals to enact the new offence of corporate
killing and to extend its application to organisations
that are not corporations.
However in relation to this offence, the Centre does
have some serious concerns.
- The Home Office is proposing
that government bodies - including prisons - should
be able to escape prosecution for corporate killing
however negligent or reckless they may have acted.
The Home Office argues that this is because they
are Crown Bodies.
It is the Centre's strongly held view that all Crown
Bodies should be able to prosecuted. Government
bodies should not be treated differently from other
organisations, and if they cause death through seriously
culpable conduct they should be prosecuted.
"A family of a person that died as a result
of serious management failures on the part of a
government body would expect that the criminal justice
system would treat the death in the same way as
if the death took place as a result of the activities
of a private company" said David Bergman
- The Home Office is proposing
that that English/Welsh companies that cause deaths
abroad as a result of seriously culpable management
practices should escape prosecution.
It is the Centre's strongly held position that companies
should be treated no differently to individuals
who would, under the Home Office proposals, be prosecuted
for the new manslaughter offences even when the
death takes place outside Britain.
"The Government should not allow British
companies to commit serious crimes abroad that result
in deaths and remain above the law", said
David Bergman
See Home
Office Consultation Documents
Return to Press
Releases
Notes to Editors:
- Through research, advocacy
and advice, the Centre for Corporate Accountability
aims to increase the accountability of companies
and their senior officers whose negligent, reckless
or intentional conduct causes harm. The Centre undertakes
research into how the criminal justice system deals
with corporate harm and advocates changes to law
and practice were necessary. The Centre's Management
Committee and Advisory Council includes most of
Britain's leading lawyers and academics working
in this area.
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