Manslaughter Fines Could Be Smaller

A proposal that fines for corporate manslaughter should be related to a firm's turnover has been rejected by the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC). Guidelines put out to consultation by SGC say while corporate manslaughter fines will not be linked to either profit or turnover, they should 'seldom' be below £500,000.

They add fines may be accompanied by a publicity order, remedial order, or both. However, there is little detail on what, for example, a publicity order may entail, a point that is likely to attract comment in responses to the consultation - a mention in the company annual report might cause considerably less pain to a guilty firm than a prime time TV confessional advert.

SGC chair Lord Judge, in a letter to consultees, said the Sentencing Advisory Panel's (SAP) original proposal for fines to be between 2.5 and 10 per cent of the offending organisation's annual turnover was rejected because it 'could inadvertently risk an unfair outcome, was particularly difficult to apply to public and third-sector bodies, was likely to create a perverse incentive to adjust corporate structure to avoid the proper consequences of offending, and so did not provide the most effective way of assessing the level of fine across such a wide range of situations.' Creative accounting could mean some companies bury their profits and get away with minimal fines, the SGC's argument suggests.

The SGC's document also covers work-related health and safety offences that result in a death. It says fines in cases where a causative link has been established with the death 'should seldom be less than £100,000 and may be measured in hundreds of thousands of pounds, or more.'

As previously reported by Unionsafety, the government's consultation exercise on sentencing for corporate manslaughter can be obtained from this wbesite via the E-library Database: search Government Consultations.

Source:TUC Risks

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