Accountability for Deaths Attributable to the Gross Negligent Act or Omission of a Police Force: The Impact of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
| Author | Jon Moran,Stephen Griffin |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2010.74.4.648 |
| Published date | 01 August 2010 |
| Date | 01 August 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Accountability for Deaths
Attributable to the Gross
Negligent Act or Omission of a
Police Force: The Impact of the
Corporate Manslaughter and
Corporate Homicide Act 2007
Stephen Griffin* and Jon Moran†
Abstract This article discusses the potential impact of the Corporate Man-
slaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CMCHA) in the context of
the Act’s application to a police force for deaths caused by a gross negligent
act or omission of a police officer(s). The article will consider the account-
ability of a police force as an organisational body, prior and subsequent to
the CMCHA. Although legislative innovation is, in part, welcomed in
relation to a police force’s accountability for deaths in police custody, the
focus of the article argues that, all in all, the accountability of a police force
is not extended significantly by the CMCHA.
Keywords Culpability and accountability of police force; Gross
negligent manslaughter; Impact of the Corporate Manslaughter
and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
(CMCHA)1received Royal Assent on 26 July 2007, becoming law on the
6 April 2008.2Under the CMCHA a relevant organisation3may be found
guilty of the offence of corporate manslaughter in circumstances where
* Professor of Law, University of Wolverhampton; e-mail: S.Griffin@wlv.ac.uk.
† Reader in Criminal Justice, University of Wolverhampton; e-mail:
jonm@wlv.ac.uk.
1 The Act applies to England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In Scotland the
offence of manslaughter is referred to as ‘corporate homicide’.
2 See the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
(Commencement No. 1) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 401 (C. 15)). Legislative reform
of the law was supported by two Law Commission papers (Criminal Law:
Involuntary Manslaughter, Law Com. Consultation Paper No. 135 (1994) and
Legislating the Criminal Code: Involuntary Manslaughter, Law Com. Consultation Paper
237 (1996). Also see, the Home Office Consultation Paper on involuntary
manslaughter: Reforming the Law on Involuntary Manslaughter—The Government’s
Proposals (May 2000) (the report was produced in response to Law Com. Report
No. 237 (1996)) and a detailed analysis of the Corporate Manslaughter and
Corporate Homicide Bill (CMCHB) by the joint report of the House of Commons
Home Affairs and Work and Pensions Committees, December 2005 (HC 540 I-III).
See generally, S. Griffin, ‘Corporate Manslaughter: A Radical Reform?’ (2007) 71
JCL 151.
3 CMCHA, s. 1(2) defines a relevant organisation as (a) a corporation; (b) a
department or other body listed in CMCHA, Sched. 1; (c) a police force; and (d) a
partnership, or trade union or employers’ association, that is an employer.
358 The Journal of Criminal Law (2010) 74 JCL 358–381
doi:10.1350/jcla.2010.74.4.648
a senior management failure in the organisation was a substantial
element in a breach of a relevant duty that resulted in an individual’s
death.4Any relevant organisation found guilty of the offence of corpor-
ate manslaughter is subject to a criminal law sanction, by way of an
unlimited fine.5In addition to the payment of a fine, and with much
practical sense, s. 9 of CMCHA provides that the court may order a
remedial order to be made against any relevant organisation that is
convicted of corporate manslaughter.6Where a remedial order is in-
voked7the convicted organisation must take specified steps to remedy
the causes of the breach of a relevant duty.8Further, s. 10 of CMCHA9
provides the court with a discretionary power to make an order requir-
ing the convicted organisation to publicise in a specified manner the fact
that it has been convicted of the offence.10
For the purposes of attracting liability under the CMCHA, a police
force11 is deemed a body corporate,12 a relevant organisation. In com-
mon with fatalities due to corporate negligence,13 deaths attributable to
the negligent act or omission of a police force have long been an area
4 CMCHA 2007, s. 1. For a detailed examination of the effect of the CMCHA in a
corporate setting, see S. Griffin, ‘Corporate Killing—the Corporate Manslaughter
and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’ [2009] LMCLQ 73.
5 The responsibility for investigating the offence of corporate manslaughter rests
with the police and the offence is prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution service. In
accordance with CMCHA, s. 17, proceedings must be instituted with the consent
of the Director of Public Prosecutions. In accordance with the Sentencing
Guidelines Council the appropriate fine following a conviction for corporate
manslaughter will seldom be less than £100,000 and may be measured in
hundreds of thousands of pounds or more. The sentencing guidelines were
published on 9 February 2010, see http//www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk, accessed 7
June 2010.
6 The ability to invoke a remedial order is also found in the Health and Safety at
Work, etc. Act 1974 (HSAW 1974), s. 42(1).
7 CMCHA, s. 9(2) provides that a remedial order may only be made on an
application by the prosecution specifying the terms of the proposed order. The
court may make the terms of the order in a manner as it sees fit having regard to
the representations made by the prosecution and any evidence adduced by the
prosecution or the convicted organisation.
8 The remedial order will state that the convicted organisation must take specified
steps to remedy: (a) The breach mentioned in CMCHA, s. 1(1) (the relevant
breach); (b) Any matter that appears to the court to have resulted from the
relevant breach and to have been a cause of death; (c) Any deficiency, as regards
health and safety matters, in the company’s policies, systems or practices of which
the relevant breach appears to the court to be an indication.
9 CMCHA, s.10 was enacted by the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate
Homicide Act 2007 (Commencement No. 2) Order 2010 (SI 2010 No. 276 (C. 21))
to have effect from 15 February 2010.
10 To include: (a) specified particulars of the offence; (b) the amount of any fine
imposed and (c) the terms of any remedial order made against the organisation.
11 A police force is defined as one within the meaning of (a) (i) the Police Act 1996
(c. 16), or (ii) the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 (c. 77); (b) the Police Service of
Northern Ireland; (c) the Police Service of Northern Ireland Reserve; (d) the
British Transport Police Force; (e) the Civil Nuclear Constabulary; and (f) the
Ministry of Defence Police (see CMCHA, s. 13).
12 See CMCHA 2007, s. 13(2), which provides that : ‘For the purposes of this Act a
police force is to be treated as owing whatever duties of care it would owe if it
were a body corporate’.
13 On the lack of accountability of corporations, see G. Slapper, ‘Corporate
Manslaughter: An Examination of the Determinants of Prosecutorial Policy’
(1993) 2(4) Social and Legal Studies 423; G. Slapper and S. Tombs, Corporate Crime
Accountability for Deaths Attributable to a Police Force
359
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