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Corporate Manslaughter Bill (Draft)
An ongoing project for the government, the Draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill, published in March 2005, is to continue its pre-legislative scrutiny.
First announced in the 2004 Queen’s speech and then published the following March, the draft Bill considers more effective ways of holding companies and other organisations to account when the safety of employees and members of the public have been ignored.
The draft Bill will create a specific criminal offence of corporate manslaughter to target gross failings which have had fatal consequences by the senior management of an organisation.
Currently, when looking at corporate negligence, the resulting liability tends to be that of an individual at the top of the company, a situation the Bill would rectify by allowing the courts to look at a wider range of management conduct and target corporate, rather than individual, liability.
Despite the draft Bill’s direct approach to creating a new offence of corporate manslaughter, the emphasis is not on changing the current standards or adding to the regulatory burden, as the offence would be directly linked to existing health and safety requirements.
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Published: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:40:38 GMT+01
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