What will be the impact of The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007?
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will be implemented on 6th April 2008 and introduces a new offence that focuses on management failure at a senior level within an organisation. Currently companies can only be tried for gross negligence manslaughter. When the new legislation is implemented companies will no longer be subject to gross negligence manslaughter although individuals will still be subject to it. Currently for a company to be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter there has to be sufficient evidence for the directing mind’ of that company to be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter, this is known as the identification’ principle. A person is a ‘directing mind’ of a company if they are sufficiently senior to be considered the embodiment of the company when acting in their corporate capacity. For a company to be guilty of gross negligence manslaughter the ‘directing mind’ must have been in gross breach of the duty of care owed to the victim
