19 February 2010
Corporate Manslaughter Fines should exceed £½miilion.......
|
Fines for companies and organisations found guilty of corporate manslaughter may be millions of pounds and should seldom be below £500,000, according to definitive new advice to courts from the Sentencing Guidelines Council, which came into effect on Monday (February 15).
For other health and safety offences that cause death, fines from £100,000 up to hundreds of thousands of pounds should be imposed, it says. Publicity Orders - compelling companies and organisations to publish statements about their conviction for corporate manslaughter, details of the offence and the fine - are also part of the penalty and should be imposed in virtually all cases alongside Remedial Orders, added the Council.
Factors increasing the seriousness of the offence - which could apply in the event of a fatal road crash involving an at-work driver - identified by the Council include the foreseeability of serious injury, whether non-compliance was common and widespread within the organisation, and how far up the organisation responsibility for the breach went.
|
