The Corporate Manslaughter Act – ten years on

In this white paper, IAM RoadSmart highlights the lack of driving-for-work prosecutions under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act – and describes the legislation as a failure.

Under the Act, which was introduced in 2007, 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.

IAM Roadsmart says not a single person has been sent to jail, or even prosecuted, for contributing to an avoidable death under the legislation.

The white paper, authored by professor Steve Tombs of the Open University on behalf of IAM RoadSmart, says corporate manslaughter is ‘too far down the pecking order’ and is not backed by a dedicated team at the Health & Safety Executive.

The paper says: “It (the Act) has not done what it was designed to do; bring to account large companies.

“Where the law falls down is in its ability to identify fault in one central headquarters location or with the senior executive.

“You can always pin it down to the individual man or woman driving. But showing ‘he or she was failing to operate in a way that was required by the company’ is much harder.”