The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. The Act clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies including large organisations where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality. Although the new offence is not part of health and safety law, it will introduce an important new element in the corporate management of health and safety. Prosecutions will be of the corporate body and not individuals, but the liability of directors, board members or other individuals under health and safety law or general criminal law, will be unaffected. And the corporate body itself and individuals can still be prosecuted for separate health and safety offences. The Act also largely removes the Crown immunity that applies to the existing common law corporate manslaughter offence.

26 February 2010

Mr. Peter Eaton, Director of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, is the first prosecution under the Act and is charged with the unlawful killing of a young geologist by gross negligence. Mr Peter Eaton, first appeared at Stroud magistrates court in June 2009 to face manslaughter charges both on behalf of the company and as an individual. The case was transferred to Bristol Crown Court where Mr Eaton was to enter his plea. The case was later adjourned after an application for more time by his legal counsel and a plea hearing was to occur in October, with the trial due to commence in February 2010. Subsequently the trial was then postponed for at least four months due to the ill health of the defendant, Peter Eaton.

The trial was due to start on 23 February but following submissions heard in private on 26 February, the judge directed that the trial be adjourned and be listed to resume in October.

Solicitors firm Pinsent Masons acting for Mr Eaton and his firm, Geotechnical Holdings Ltd, said the decision was taken in light of the fact that Mr Eaton “must undergo urgent medical treatment of a character that would render it unfair and oppressive for him to have to participate in the trial at the same time.”

Update: 06 October 2010

The long-awaited trial has been adjourned again until 24 January 2011 however in open court on 6 October, the judge ruled that, owing to the ill health of Mr Eaton, the two charges against him should be permanently stayed.

The trial of the company will proceed on the new date. The judge also indicated that he would not tolerate any further delays in the case.

Update: 27 January 2011

As the UK's first corporate manslaughter trial under new legislation gets underway today, a law firm has said that small businesses are right to be concerned over the law.

The trial against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings over the death of 27-year-old geologist Alexander Wright is taking place at Winchester Crown Court.

Jonathan Grimes, partner of the criminal and regulatory department at law firm Kingsley Napley, said: "As this case demonstrates, smaller companies and their directors certainly have something to fear from the new legislation.  "However, it will probably take a large-scale and high profile fatal accident to truly test the ability of the prosecuting authorities to hold large companies to account.  "The real question is whether the police and CPS have the appetite for, and ability to pursue, prosecutions against large corporations. Time will tell." 

The trial continues and is expected to last three weeks.

Update: 17 February 2011

Today at Winchester Crown Court Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd have been found guilty and fined £385,000.   The conviction followed a two-week trial at the court following the the death of employee Alexander Wright in September 2008.  The judge, in handing down the sentance, confirmed Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd could pay the fine over 10-year period, paying a £38,500 every year of that period.  The company does not have to pay any costs.

 The jury found, in convicting the company on 15 February, that the company’s system of work in digging trial pits was wholly and unnecessarily dangerous.  Furthermore Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd ignored industry guidance, which prohibited entry into excavations more than 1.2 metres deep, allowing junior employees to enter into (and work) in unsupported trial pits, typically from 2 to 3.5 metres deep.

In consideration of the fine of £385,000; in 2008 Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings employed eight people and had a turnover of £333,000.

Further information:

HSG 150 – health and safety in construction (page 71)  

(CDM ACOP) L144 – managing health and safety in construction 

HSE Guidance: Structural stability during excavations