GET your company car driving car policies in order – that must be the message for small businesses.
The Sentencing Guidelines Council is consulting on the level of fines applicable under the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act. The recommendation is for fines to be at least £500,000.
Factors that may increase the fine include evidence of cost cutting, ignoring warnings and non compliance with licence conditions where relevant.
Also recommended is a Publicity Order to force companies and organisations to make a statement about their conviction and fine imposed under the Act. Companies may also have to publish a notice on their website.
Council member and vice president of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Lord Justice Anthony Hughes said: “Fines cannot and do not attempt to value a human life – compensation will be payable separately in these cases.
“The fine is designed to punish and these are serious offences. So the fines imposed should be significant to reflect that.
“The Council considered very carefully the approach suggested by the Sentencing Advisory Panel of a fixed correlation between the amount of the fine and a company’s turnover or profit, but decided this was not appropriate in view of the different financial structures and circumstances of organisations within the private, public and third sectors.”
The consultation closes on Tuesday 5 January 2010.
Further information
There’s additional commentary in the Editor’s Blog Corporate Manslaughter fines: what should we make of this?
You can also download the Sentencing Guidelines Council proposals by clicking on this link.THE Sentencing Guidelines Council proposes a L500,000 fine starting point for fatal health and safety lapses.
