First Prosecution under New Corporate Manslaughter Legislation

May 13, 2009

The Crown Prosecution Service has announced a Cotswold Firm will be the first Company to be prosecuted under the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.
The charge has been authorised by the CPS against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd of Birslip in relation to fatal accident in September 2008.

The fatally injured employee worked as a Junior Geologist; at the time of the accident he was taking soil samples from inside an excavated pit when the sides collapsed crushing him.
The CPS Special Crime Divisions reviewing lawyer, Kate Leonard said there was ‘Sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for this offence’ she further explained ‘Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter 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’.
With this being the first case under the new Act we shall watch closely how it develops and update on the outcome.