The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) issued “definitive guidelines” in relation to corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences causing death on 9 February 2010. Every court must consider these when sentencing organisations on or after 15 February 2010, irrespective of whether the relevant prosecution was commenced before this date.
The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) issued “definitive guidelines” in relation to corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences causing death on 9 February 2010. Every court must consider these when sentencing organisations on or after 15 February 2010, irrespective of whether the relevant prosecution was commenced before this date.
Ever since the publication of the draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill, an increasingly heated debate has raged between interested lobbying groups concerning the formulation of financial penalties to be levied against an organisation on conviction, specifically whether fines should be calculated by reference to that organisation’s turnover.
The genesis of the issues
In 2008 the Sentencing Advisory Panel (SAP) first proposed that the courts, when fining organisations for either corporate manslaughter or fatal health and safety failings under the Health and Safety at Work Act
