| Policy issue |
Law Commission 1996 Paper | Government Consultation Paper 2000
| Draft Bill |
| Who the Bill applies to | Any corporation, however and wherever incorporated (so including abroad), other than a corporation sole, but not unincorporated bodies or individuals, even as a second party.
| All forms of undertaking, including partnerships, schools, unincorporated charities and small businesses; also parent and other groups companies if it could be shown that their own management failures were a cause of the death concerned.
| Corporations, but not unincorporated bodies; also parent corporations (as well as any subsidiary) if a gross management failure by their senior managers caused death
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| Application to the Crown | No comment
| Welcomed views on the application of Crown immunity to the offence of corporate killing.
| Removal of Crown immunity with exemptions.
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| Causation | Separate provision, to the effect that management failure may be regarded as a cause of a person's death notwithstanding that the immediate cause is the act or omission of an individual.
| Separate provision, to the effect that management failure may be regarded as a cause of a person's death notwithstanding that the immediate cause is the act or omission of an individual.
| No separate provision. The Home Office argue that case law in this area has developed since the Law Commission reported and that no separate provision is now needed.
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| Management Failings | Defined as failures in the way an organisation's activities are managed or organised.
| Defined as failures in the way an organisation's activities are managed or organised.
| Defined as failures in the way an organisation's activities are managed or organised by an organisation's senior managers.
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| Corporate Behaviour Caught (Gross Breach) |
Conduct that falls far below what can reasonably be expected in the circumstances.
| Conduct that falls far below what can reasonably be expected in the circumstances.
| Conduct that falls far below what can reasonably be expected in the circumstances, with a range of factors for assessing a company's culpability.
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| Relevant Duty of Care | Ensuring the health and safety of employees or members of the public. No definition of the relationship between this and duties imposed by health and safety legislation and duties imposed under the common law to take reasonable care for the safety of others.
| Ensuring the health and safety of employees or members of the public. No definition of the relationship between this and duties imposed by health and safety legislation and duties imposed under the common law to take reasonable care for the safety of others.
| That owed under the law of negligence by an organisation:###as employer or occupier of land###when supplying goods or services or when engaged in other commercial activities (for example, in mining or fishing).###other than when carrying out exclusively public functions. The draft bill also exempts decisions involving matters of public policy.###
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| Sanctions | Fines and powers to courts to give remedial orders.
| Fines and powers to courts to give remedial orders, plus individual sanctions (see below).
| Fines and powers to courts to give remedial orders.
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| Territorial Application | Liability for the corporate offence only if the injury that results in death is sustained in such a place that the English courts would have had jurisdiction over the offence had it been committed by an individual other than a British subject.
| Liability for the corporate offence only if the injury that results in death is sustained in such a place that the English courts would have had jurisdiction over the offence had it been committed by an individual other than a British subject.
| Liability for the corporate offence only if the injury that results in death is sustained in such a place that the English courts would have had jurisdiction over the offence had it been committed by an individual other than a British subject.
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| Individual Liability for Directors | None, apart from through existing health & safety law & individual manslaughter law.
| Any individual who could be shown to have had some influence on, or responsibility for, the circumstances in which a management failure falling far below what could reasonably be expected was a cause of a person's death should be subject to a disqualification from acting in a management role in any undertaking carrying on a business or activity in Great Britain;###also invited views on whether officers of undertakings if they contribute to the management failure resulting in death, should be liable to a penalty of imprisonment in separate criminal proceedings.
| No new sanctions or plans to pursue secondary liability for individuals.
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| Private prosecutions | No consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions required
| No consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions required
| Consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions required before proceedings for the new offence can be instituted.
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| Powers to investigate and prosecute | No comment
| The health and safety enforcing authorities and possibly other enforcement agencies should investigate and prosecute the new offences, in addition to the police and CPS; also invited views on whether it would ever be appropriate to permit the prosecuting authority to institute proceedings to freeze company assets before criminal proceedings start to prevent assets being transferred to evade fines or compensation orders.
| The current responsibilities of the police to investigate and the CPS to prosecute corporate manslaughter will not change. The Home Office argues that the police and CPS already work jointly with the HSE and a protocol for liaison between agencies has been developed.
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