Corporate manslaughter threshold

[anonymous-user]

Does any legal beagles know where the threshold is? I read this and the council only got a fine despite being previous warned about it.

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc...

[Tony1963]

Who would you charge in connection with this sad incident?

[abzmike]

A tragic incident, but how exactly is the public interest served by making a council pay a monetary fine to the justice department?

[anonymous-user]

The corporate manslaughter and homicide act 2007 was a change in the legislation away from the earlier offences which removes the crown immunity and prosecutes the corporate body and not individuals.

The act is specific toward senior management in order to ensure that an organisation would not be held liable for management failures occurring solely at a relatively junior level. It's defined as;

Act said:

‘Senior management’ is defined in Section 1(4) as follows: “‘senior management’, in relation to an organisation, means the persons who play significant roles in—

1. the making of decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of its activities are to be managed or organised, or
2. the actual managing or organising of the whole or a substantial part of those activities.”

Without knowing much about the case linked, I'd guess it's not being pursued as corporate manslaughter because of the above.

[Rough101]

There was a very clear case with this in Cumbria with legionella deaths, where it was flagged from the operative all the way to the top of the council as a risk and hazard but no budget was approved. I think it ended in a suspended sentence.

In that case there was absolutely no breakdown in communication, or an error or poor procedures, all the relevant people were fully advised if the risk and simply refused to release a budget, it was very clear cut and no real consequences, the tree one just seems more like sloppy management and procedures.

[OutInTheShed]

abzmike said:

A tragic incident, but how exactly is the public interest served by making a council pay a monetary fine to the justice department?

Bumping up the council tax bill for the kid's parents.

Head Teachers spend a lot of time writing tick-box health and safety policies.
School inspectors and OFSTED tell them how many points they've scored.
Lots of paperwork, divorced from the reality.

One person needs to be responsible, not 'the council'.
Lots of people paid proper money to take responsibility.

Not just a tree that's rotten.