Corporate killing Bill fails to satisfy safety groups

摘要

The new offence of corporate killing has finally been outlined in a government draft Bill but it has received a cautious welcome from business bodies, unions and lawyers. The offence set out in the draft Bill is designed to tackle the difficulties created by the need to prove that a 'directing mind', i.e. an individual at the top of the company, who embodies it in their decisions, is themselves guilty of manslaughter. According to the Bill, "this is addressed through a new test based on failures in the way an organisation's activities were managed or organised" on the part of its senior managers.