A death connected with a business can lead to a corporate manslaughter investigation, often alongside possible health and safety or other regulatory offences. Corporate manslaughter is not confined to workplace accidents and can potentially arise from unsafe working practices, failures affecting customers or members of the public, transport operations, care provision and serious food safety incidents.
Investigators will look beyond the immediate circumstances of the death. They may examine how the organisation was managed, decisions made by senior management, previous warnings or incidents, risk assessments, training, staffing and whether appropriate procedures were actually followed.
Our specialist criminal and regulatory lawyers advise companies, directors and senior managers from the earliest stages of an investigation through to any prosecution.
What is corporate manslaughter?
Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, an organisation can commit corporate manslaughter where the way its activities are managed or organised:
The breach must fall far below what could reasonably have been expected of the organisation. A death connected with a business does not therefore automatically amount to corporate manslaughter.
When can corporate manslaughter arise?
Potential scenarios include:
workplace fatalities;
construction site deaths;
unsafe machinery or equipment;
inadequate maintenance;
dangerous working practices;
workplace or commercial vehicle deaths;
inadequate training or supervision;
failures involving contractors or subcontractors;
fatal fires or structural failures;
deaths of customers or members of the public;
care home and care-sector deaths;
transport-related fatalities;
fatal food poisoning or contamination;
serious allergen or food-labelling failures;
failures in food preparation, hygiene or storage; and
failures to act following previous incidents, complaints or warnings.
The central issue is normally whether the death resulted from sufficiently serious organisational and senior-management failings, rather than simply whether something went wrong.
How we can help
Corporate manslaughter investigations can be extensive and may involve the police, HSE, local authorities or other regulators. An investigation may also widen to consider different offences and the potential liability of individual directors or managers.
We can assist with:
Immediate advice following a fatal incident and engagement with investigators.
Police and regulatory investigations, including those involving the HSE and local authorities.
Evidence and document requests, including emails, policies, risk assessments and internal records.
Interviews under caution, including seeking pre-interview disclosure and preparing directors, managers and employees.
Internal investigations, helping establish what happened without compromising the defence.
Corporate and individual liability, including identifying potential conflicts between the company and individuals.
Representations against prosecution where the evidence does not justify charges.
Defending proceedings involving corporate manslaughter, health and safety and related offences.
Why specialist representation matters
Corporate manslaughter sits at the intersection of serious criminal liability and regulatory enforcement. An investigation into a death can expand into management systems, regulatory compliance and possible offences by individual directors or managers.
Our lawyers have experience across health and safety, business crime, fraud, Trading Standards, local authority enforcement, food-sector regulation and interviews under caution. This broader experience can be particularly important where several possible offences are being investigated at the same time.
What will investigators look at?
A corporate manslaughter investigation may examine how the organisation operated over a considerable period before the death.
Evidence can include:
risk assessments and policies;
management and reporting structures;
board and management records;
emails and other communications;
staffing and supervision;
training;
maintenance and inspection records;
previous incidents and near misses;
complaints and warnings;
regulatory history; and
whether written procedures were actually followed in practice.
This distinction between what a business's policies said should happen and what actually happened can become particularly important.
What does senior management mean?
Corporate manslaughter is concerned with organisational failure. It is not established simply because an employee made a serious mistake.
The prosecution must establish that the way activities were managed or organised by senior management formed a substantial element of the gross breach.
Senior management is not necessarily confined to board directors. Depending on the organisation, it can include people who play significant roles in deciding how the whole or a substantial part of its activities are managed or who actually manage those activities.
The management structure and where responsibility actually rested can therefore be central to the investigation.
Can directors be prosecuted?
Corporate manslaughter is an offence committed by the organisation, not an individual director or manager.
However, the same investigation can result in individuals being investigated or prosecuted for separate offences. Depending on the circumstances, these can include health and safety offences or gross negligence manslaughter.
The company and its directors may initially appear to have the same interests, but that can change as evidence emerges. Separate legal representation may therefore sometimes be required. The same incident may result in investigation or prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, food safety legislation or other regulatory law. The defence strategy therefore needs to consider all realistic offences and potential defendants, rather than focusing solely on whether the threshold for corporate manslaughter is met.
What happens during an investigation?
Following a potentially criminal business-related death, an investigation may involve the police together with the HSE, local authority or another specialist regulator.
Investigators may:
secure and examine the location;
seize equipment or other physical evidence;
obtain documents and electronic communications;
take witness statements;
examine management systems and previous incidents;
obtain expert evidence; and
interview directors, managers and employees under caution.
Businesses should obtain advice early about dealing with investigators and preserving potentially relevant evidence.
Documents or communications should not be destroyed, altered or concealed. Conduct after an incident can itself create serious evidential difficulties and potentially expose individuals to additional criminal allegations.
What defences may be available?
A death, even following serious failings, does not automatically establish corporate manslaughter. Depending on the circumstances, important defence issues can include:
Duty of care – whether the organisation owed the relevant legal duty.
Breach – whether there was actually a breach of that duty.
Gross breach – whether any failures were sufficiently serious to fall far below the required standard.
Causation – whether the alleged organisational failures caused the death.
Senior management involvement – whether senior management played the substantial role required by the legislation.
Individual rather than organisational failure – whether the incident resulted from an individual's departure from otherwise adequate systems.
Reasonable systems and precautions – evidence of appropriate risk assessments, training, supervision and safety procedures.
Factual and expert evidence – whether the prosecution's account of how and why the death occurred can be challenged.
The precise circumstances of the incident and the way the organisation actually operated will be central to any defence.
What are the criminal penalties?
The consequences depend upon who is prosecuted and for which offence.
The organisation – corporate manslaughter carries an unlimited fine.
Remedial orders – the court can require the organisation to address failures which contributed to the offence.
Publicity orders – the organisation can be required to publicise specified details of its conviction and sentence.
Companies and individuals can face separate penalties for health and safety or other regulatory offences arising from the same incident.
Directors and managers convicted of relevant individual offences can face substantial fines and, for the most serious offences such as gross negligence manslaughter, imprisonment.
It is therefore important to assess potential liability across the investigation as a whole rather than viewing corporate manslaughter in isolation.
Parallel civil claims, inquests and other proceedings
A corporate manslaughter or regulatory investigation may take place alongside an inquest and a civil compensation claim brought by the deceased's family or estate, as well as separate health and safety or regulatory proceedings.
These processes can overlap. Evidence, witness accounts, internal investigations and documents produced in one context may have implications elsewhere. The response to the criminal investigation should therefore be considered alongside any inquest, civil claim and regulatory proceedings, rather than each being dealt with in isolation.
Wider implications for the business
A corporate manslaughter investigation can continue for a considerable period and its effects may extend beyond the criminal proceedings.
Depending on the circumstances, there may be implications for insurers, employees, customers, regulators, commercial relationships and the organisation's reputation. Decisions about internal investigations, communications and engagement with third parties therefore need to be considered alongside the criminal defence.
Early coordination can also help avoid decisions made in one part of the case inadvertently prejudicing the organisation's position elsewhere.
Speak to our corporate manslaughter lawyers
If your organisation is facing an investigation following a death, early specialist advice can help ensure that evidence is properly preserved, investigators are dealt with appropriately and the position of both the organisation and relevant individuals is carefully considered.
Contact our criminal and regulatory lawyers for advice on a corporate manslaughter investigation or related health and safety or regulatory proceedings.
