Ensure you have a risk management plan

Although the government has yet to decide on a definite date for its introduction, the draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill could see prosecution of negligent companies become much more common.

The Bill proposes a specific offence of Corporate Manslaughter.

This would make it possible to convict companies for corporate manslaughter in cases where they have breached their duty of care through management failures.

The new offence targets the liability of organisations themselves, and the way their activities are managed, rather than that of individual directors. As an offence committed by organisations rather than individuals, it would carry a penalty of an unlimited fine rather than a custodial sentence.

But it could make smaller businesses easier to prosecute if found guilty of corporate manslaughter breaches.

Key points:

• Corporate Manslaughter Bill aimed at companies not individuals.
• Juries required to consider the organisation