Labour’s corporate manslaughter reforms were well intentioned – but they aren’t working

Last week a jury took an hour to clear the owners of the Gleision Drift Mine of the manslaughter of four miners. The men died when an attempt to break through to an old mine shaft caused 650,000 gallons of water to engulf them. The case cost several million pounds and lasted three months. Whilst the pursuit of justice is welcome one line from the mine-owners’ barrister demonstrates why the law on corporate manslaughter is failing:

“Mistakes, even very serious mistakes, are not enough to prove gross negligence.”

Labour brought in the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 to meet a commitment to those who had long campaigned for greater justice in this area. A BBC report foretold “a dramatic rise in the number of corporate manslaughter cases against businesses of all sizes.”

Seven years on, following the conviction of Cavendish Masonry last month, there is an average of one conviction per year. Whilst not every death will entail culpability on the part of the employer it is unsustainable to think that with an average of 181 deaths a year in 180 cases that is not so. The corporate manslaughter law Labour introduced is not working.

The fundamental problem is that the prosecution must prove there was a ‘gross’ breach of duty by senior management directly leading to the death of a person. Senior management means someone who controls the whole organisation or a substantial part of it. In large organisations many layers of control may separate that person and circumstances leading to a fatality. Big corporations are all but exempt from prosecution.

Take a situation where a safety guard is removed from a piece of machinery. A typical workplace situation leading to serious injury or worse. The direct cause of a death might be a local manager responding to pressure to meet unachievable productivity or efficiency saving targets. The local manager would not qualify as senior management and the Court cannot easily look at the over-arching culture of an organisation. We need new legislation that looks at the links in the chain of causation and will punish organisations whose recklessness and disregard for safety causes loss as much as those who cause death through their direct acts.

All seven companies convicted so far have been small. In the case of Cavendish Masonry, who await sentence, 23 year old David Evans died whilst working on the renovation of a £20 million property in Oxfordshire. A two-ton block – supported by its own weight after safety strops were loosened – fell and crushed him.

Sentencing guidelines state that fines ‘will seldom be less than £500,000 and may be measured in millions of pounds’. Every single fine imposed has been less than the £500,000 minimum partly reflecting the size of the companies involved.

A robust law on corporate manslaughter is not about revenge but justice and deterrence. One conviction out of 181 cases suggests an unacceptable level of impunity. Those whose actions may ultimately kill someone should feel the weight of the law bearing down on them. Those who lose loved ones should have answers and closure.

However well-intentioned, Labour’s 2007 Act does not fit a globalised economy and has failed to deliver. The Tories will continue their crusade to sweep away safety regulation and the consequences will be more injury, more deaths. From zero hours contracts to the bedroom tax Labour is standing up for the vulnerable. There are few more vulnerable than those who have to work in the face of the gravest of dangers, as a Party we should protect them.