Still killing with impunity: corporate criminal law reform in the UK

Tombs, Steve (2013). Still killing with impunity: corporate criminal law reform in the UK. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, 11(2) pp. 63–80.

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iosh/pphs/20...

Abstract

After some 14 years in the making, 2007 saw the passage of the UK’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, which came into force in 2008. The aim of the Act was to facilitate the prosecution of medium and larger organisations following work-related deaths. It is with the nature and potential of such prosecutions that this paper is concerned. The paper begins by noting the emergence of the Act, before focusing on the three cases taken under it to date. The paper then considers reasons for there being, thus far, only three prosecutions under the Act, and addresses this at three levels: in relation to the law itself, the way in which it is enforced, and the wider political and economic contexts in which it has emerged. It concludes that the law may have symbolic significance only – albeit that this is not to dismiss it as wholly irrelevant.

Viewing alternatives

Item Actions

Export

You can export this page using these formats