Corporate Manslaughter and Health and Safety Sentencing in the UK

Corporate Manslaughter in Brief

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 covers organisations where a gross breach of duty causes death. Sentencing Council guidelines drive significant H&S fines for serious offences, scaled to turnover.

Corporate Manslaughter under UK Law

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force on 6 April 2008 and is the principal UK law for prosecuting organisations responsible for fatalities through gross management failures. The offence is called corporate manslaughter in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and corporate homicide in Scotland. It applies to all UK organisations - companies, partnerships, public bodies and certain Crown bodies - and is triable only on indictment in the Crown Court.

Under section 1 of the Act, an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised:

Causes a person's death, and
Amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased, and
The way in which the activities were managed or organised by senior management is a substantial element in the breach

The senior management test is the key change from the previous common law position. Before the 2007 Act, a corporation could only be convicted of manslaughter if a single individual senior enough to embody the corporate mind was personally responsible. The 2007 Act allows the court to look at the collective failure of those who play significant roles in deciding how the whole or a substantial part of the organisation's activities are managed - branch managers, site managers, plant managers, finance directors and equivalent.

A "gross breach" means conduct that falls far below what could reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances. Juries consider any breach of health and safety legislation, attitudes and policies that encouraged or tolerated the failure, and relevant guidance such as HSE Approved Codes of Practice.

Sentencing for Corporate Manslaughter

The Sentencing Council's definitive guideline, in force from 1 February 2016, sets fines for corporate manslaughter on a scale linked to the size of the organisation by turnover:

Large organisations (turnover £50m or more) - starting points from £3 million to £7.5 million, range up to £20 million
Medium organisations (turnover £10m to £50m) - starting points from £1.2 million to £3 million, range up to £7.5 million
Small organisations (turnover £2m to £10m) - starting points from £300,000 to £800,000, range up to £2.8 million
Micro organisations (turnover under £2m) - starting points from £180,000 to £450,000, range up to £800,000

The court can also impose ancillary orders. A publicity order under section 10 requires the organisation to publicise the conviction, the fine and the remedial steps taken. A remedial order under section 9 requires the organisation to take specific steps to put right the management failure that led to the death. These orders run alongside the fine and can have a significant reputational and operational impact.

Although the corporate manslaughter offence prosecutes only the organisation, individuals are not insulated. Senior managers and directors can still face personal prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 or for gross negligence manslaughter at common law in connection with the same incident.

Director and Manager Personal Liability

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 creates personal criminal liability for directors and senior managers in two ways:

Section 7 - every employee, including directors as employees of their own company, has a duty to take reasonable care for their own and others' safety, and to cooperate with employer duties. Breach is a criminal offence
Section 37 - where an offence by a body corporate (typically under sections 2 or 3) is committed with the consent or connivance of, or attributable to neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or similar officer, that individual is also guilty of the offence

Section 37 is the principal route to director and manager liability. Three forms of culpability are recognised:

Consent - the individual agreed to or authorised the act or omission constituting the offence, with knowledge of the circumstances
Connivance - the individual was aware of what was happening but turned a blind eye to it
Neglect - the individual failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the offence in circumstances where they should have known about it. The individual does not need to have actual knowledge - failing to know what they ought to have known is enough

Liability under section 37 attaches to authority and responsibility, not job title. A person with effective decision-making power over a relevant part of the business can be caught regardless of what their role is called.

Sentencing for Individuals

The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came into force on 16 January 2009 and significantly increased the sentencing powers of the courts for health and safety offences:

Imprisonment - most health and safety offences are now imprisonable, with up to two years in the Crown Court and up to six months in the Magistrates' Court. Before 2009, imprisonment was only available for breach of a prohibition or improvement notice
Magistrates' Court fines - now unlimited (since 12 March 2015 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012). Before that they were capped at £20,000 for general duty breaches
Crown Court fines - unlimited, with the level set by reference to the Sentencing Council's guideline
Director disqualification - on conviction of an indictable health and safety offence, the court can disqualify the individual from acting as a director for up to 15 years

For organisations, the Sentencing Council guideline ranges from £50 (for the smallest infringements at the lowest culpability level) up to £10 million for serious breaches by very large organisations. Individuals face fines ranging up to several hundred thousand pounds, alongside the imprisonment options above.

The Reverse Burden under HSWA Section 40

Section 40 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a reverse burden of proof on the defendant in many H&S prosecutions. Once the prosecution has shown that:

The defendant owed a relevant duty under sections 2 to 6 of the Act, and
The duty was not complied with

the burden shifts to the defendant to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that it was not reasonably practicable to do more than was actually done to comply with the duty. The Court of Appeal in R v Chargot Ltd [2008] UKHL 73 confirmed that the reverse burden is compatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, given the regulatory nature of health and safety law. The practical consequence for employers is that defending an H&S prosecution requires positive evidence of the safety management arrangements that were in place - good systems, documented risk assessments, training records and supervision evidence are central to the defence.

The thing that brings most corporate manslaughter prosecutions about is not a freak accident - it is a foreseeable failure that everyone in the management chain should have spotted but nobody did. The pattern usually involves an unsafe practice that has been going on for months or years, raised by someone but not acted on, repeated near-misses that were ignored, and an absent or out-of-date risk assessment. By the time the fatal incident happens, the evidence of senior management failure is already in the records - or, more often, in the absence of records that should have existed.

What I look for on this in audits is the connection between the policy at the top of the organisation and what actually happens at the workplace. Does the board minute reference health and safety? Is there a named director with H&S responsibility? Are risk assessments reviewed at the right level? Are incidents and near-misses tracked, escalated, and acted on? An organisation with a glossy H&S policy and no evidence of the policy operating in practice is in a much worse position after a fatality than one with rougher documentation but clear evidence of decisions being made and acted on.

The reverse burden under section 40 makes the audit trail particularly important. After an incident, the organisation has to prove what it did - not the prosecution. If the records do not exist, or were not maintained between formal review dates, the defence becomes much harder. This is why I emphasise contemporaneous records: training delivered and acknowledged, risk assessments dated and signed off, near-miss reviews documented, corrective actions tracked through to completion.

For SMEs, the corporate manslaughter offence is sometimes mistakenly viewed as something that only applies to big companies. It does not. The first organisation prosecuted under the 2007 Act was a small geotechnical engineering firm with eight staff and a turnover of about £250,000, fined £385,000. The Sentencing Council guideline scales fines to size, but the offence applies to organisations of all sizes. Below the £2 million turnover threshold, fines start at £180,000 - a level that can put an SME out of business. The practical answer is the same as the management system answer generally: documented risk assessments that are reviewed, training delivered and recorded, an incident and near-miss process that actually surfaces issues, and evidence that senior management considers H&S as a regular agenda item rather than a once-a-year tick-box.

Gross Negligence Manslaughter for Individuals

Where a workplace death is caused by an individual's grossly negligent breach of duty, the individual can be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter under the common law. The test, set out in R v Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171, requires the prosecution to show:

The defendant owed a duty of care to the deceased
The defendant breached that duty
The breach caused or significantly contributed to the death
The breach was so bad in the circumstances that it amounts to a criminal act or omission - that is, gross negligence

Gross negligence manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is most commonly used against directors, owner-managers and senior individuals in small or medium-sized businesses where the individual's personal failure is closer to the cause of death than the systemic failure of the organisation. Following the introduction of the corporate manslaughter offence in 2008, the common law offence of gross negligence manslaughter no longer applies to companies and other organisations covered by the 2007 Act, but it remains available against individuals.

Reportable Incidents under RIDDOR

Separate from the criminal offences, the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) require employers to report fatal accidents, specified injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences to the HSE or the relevant enforcing authority. Failure to report is itself a criminal offence under the regulations. Most corporate manslaughter and serious H&S investigations begin with a RIDDOR report, so accurate and timely reporting is the first step in the post-incident process.

Practical Advice

For most SMEs, the practical answer to corporate manslaughter and H&S offences risk is the same as the answer to the underlying H&S management requirements - documented risk assessments, suitable controls, training delivered and recorded, an incident and near-miss process, and senior management oversight. The toolkit and documents below provide the documented basis.

The legal exposure is broader than just the corporate offence. Directors and senior managers face personal liability under HSWA section 37 for consent, connivance or neglect, with imprisonment of up to two years available since 2009. Individuals can also face gross negligence manslaughter charges where their personal failure caused the death.

alphaZ document	How to use it
IMS Toolkit (ISO 9001/14001/45001)	The integrated management system toolkit. Includes the H&S policy framework, risk assessment templates, accident and incident reporting forms, and the management review documentation that demonstrate senior management oversight.
General Staff Handbook	The consolidated staff handbook. Sets out the H&S policy and arrangements, employee duties under HSWA section 7, and the reporting routes for hazards and near-misses.
ER9 Legal Register	The legal register entry for the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 and RIDDOR sits here, alongside the wider H&S legislation.

Note: subscribers to alphaZ documents can download all of the documents above as part of the subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the corporate manslaughter offence apply to small businesses?

Yes. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 applies to all UK organisations regardless of size, including limited companies, limited liability partnerships, partnerships, charities and public bodies. The first prosecution under the Act was of a small geotechnical engineering firm with eight employees, fined £385,000. The Sentencing Council guideline scales fines to organisation size, but the offence itself does not have an SME exemption. Micro organisations (turnover under £2m) face fines starting at £180,000 with a range up to £800,000.

Can directors go to prison for health and safety offences?

Yes. Since the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came into force on 16 January 2009, most health and safety offences carry imprisonment as a sentencing option - up to two years in the Crown Court and up to six months in the Magistrates' Court. Directors and senior managers can be prosecuted personally under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 where the company's offence was committed with their consent, connivance or neglect. In the most serious cases, individuals can also be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter at common law, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

What does "senior management failure" mean?

Under section 1(4)(c) of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, senior management means the people who play significant roles in deciding how the whole or a substantial part of the organisation's activities are managed or organised, or in actually managing or organising those activities. This includes board directors but also operational managers - branch managers, site managers, plant managers, finance directors, regional managers and equivalent. The senior management failure must be a substantial element of the breach of duty that caused the death.

What does the reverse burden under section 40 mean for SMEs?

Section 40 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 shifts the burden of proof to the defendant once the prosecution has shown that a relevant duty existed and was not complied with. The defendant has to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that it was not reasonably practicable to do more than was actually done. For SMEs, this means the records of what was done - risk assessments, training records, supervision evidence, incident records - become central to defending any prosecution. An SME with strong contemporary records is in a substantially better position than one relying on memory and reconstruction after the event.

What is the difference between corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter?

Corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a statutory offence that prosecutes only the organisation. The penalty is an unlimited fine, plus possible publicity and remedial orders. Gross negligence manslaughter is a common law offence that prosecutes only individuals (since the 2007 Act abolished the common law offence as it applied to companies). It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The same incident can give rise to both - the organisation prosecuted for corporate manslaughter, an individual director or manager prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter, and HSWA charges brought against either or both.

UK Legislation

Further Resources