Biggart Baillie Solicitors

First Conviction Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007

An English company has become the first to be convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into effect in April 2008. 

After a Crown Court trial, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings was convicted of corporate manslaughter following the death of a geologist, Alex Wright, who had been employed by the company.  Mr Wright had been working in a deep trench when it collapsed and he was killed. The jury found that the company’s system of work in digging trial pits was wholly and unnecessarily dangerous. The company had ignored well recognised industry guidance in this area.

Under the 2007 Act, an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter (corporate homicide in Scotland) if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the person who died.  A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way activities were organised by senior management. 

This case is unlikely to provide significant guidance on the future application of the 2007 Act especially on the issue of senior management’s organisation of activities.  Cotswold Geotechnical was a small company, which had only 8 employees in 2008 and only one director.  The director was in overall control of the way in which the company carried out activities and, on that basis, identifying the extent to which senior management organised the company’s activities was not a difficult exercise.

The crown prosecution service in England and Wales has confirmed that it is considering a number of other files in relation to further possible prosecutions under the 2007 Act. The Procurator Fiscal's office in Scotland is in a similar situation.

Yesterday, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings was fined £385,000 for what the judge described as a “grave” offence. In view of the company’s financial position, it will be allowed to pay the fine over a 10 year period. In deciding on the level of fine, the judge took into account the fact that the company is a small operation and a higher fine may have led to the company’s liquidation, which in turn would have led to the company’s 4 employees losing their jobs.

The judge stated that the level of the fine imposed marked the gravity of the offence and should act as a deterrent to other company’s failing to adhere to health and safety guidance.

The fine is lower that the starting point of £500,000 recommended by the Sentencing Guidelines Council for England and Wales, largely due to the company’s limited financial means, but the level of the fine will no doubt still have a serious impact on a business of the size of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings.

This case serves to highlight the need for all organisations to take health and safety seriously and to keep up to date with the regulations on this area.

If you would like more information about any aspect of the Health and Safety services we provide, please contact David Stevenson, Partner on 0141 228 8000.