Following a number of high profile accidents on roads, rail and sea, the law is widely considered to be defective in its provision of remedies against the companies responsible. This is because to find a company guilty of corporate manslaughter it is necessary to identify a "directing mind"- an individual within the company whose actions are attributable to the company. The guilt of the company equates with the guilt of that individual. This is relatively straightforward in the case of small one or two director companies, but where large corporations with complicated management structures are involved it has proven virtually impossible to establish guilt.
The new offence of corporate killing proposed by the Home Office envisages a concept of "management failure". Death will be seen as caused by the conduct of a company if it is caused by management failure, where the failure constitutes conduct falling far below what can reasonably be expected in the circumstances. The Law
