Corporate manslaughter offence extended to custody providers including prisons and hospitals

The so-called “custody provisions” for the offence of corporate manslaughter have come into force today and will apply to organisations such as prisons and secure hospitals, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 created a new statutory offence of corporate manslaughter, whereby an organisation can be found guilty if the way in which its activities were managed or organised caused a death and amounted to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care to the deceased.

A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way activities were managed by senior management.

The 2007 Act came into force on 6 April 2008, except for the custody provisions. Today’s changes mean the law will “apply to deaths of persons owed a duty of care by virtue of: being detained at a custodial institution, or in a custody area at a court or police station, at a removal centre or short-term holding facility, transported in a vehicle or being held in any premises in pursuance of prison escort arrangements or immigration escort arrangements, living in secure accommodation in which the person has been placed, or if the person is a detained patient.“

This will cover custody providers including prisons, secure hospitals, police and juvenile detention facilities. The changes also extend the law to apply to Ministry of Defence and UK Borders Agency customs custodial facilities.

An organisation convicted of the offence could face unlimited fines, be ordered to change their polices and be forced to publish details of their fines.

“Today’s change increases the accountability of custody providers (public and private) under the criminal law,” the MoJ said.

In a circular, the Ministry added: “It is worth noting that the custody provisions do not create additional duties of care. All custody providers already owe duties of care to detainees, to the same extent that they do to e.g. their staff or the public, by virtue of one of the other duties contained in the Act. However, once the custody provisions are commenced the specific duty of care owed to detained persons will be relevant for the purposes of the offence in the Act.

Human rights group Liberty said the changes had finally rectified for certain people – often the most vulnerable and isolated – “a gaping hole in the government’s approach to protecting life”.

In its blog, it said: “The new offence means public bodies can now face prosecution if senior management failings amount to gross negligence and result in the death of someone in custody. This was a provision that Liberty, alongside other campaigners, fought hard for when the Act was being passed. When the Bill was tabled it applied solely to private organisations – only intense lobbying secured an amendment extending its remit to public bodies as well.

“Before today, if a detained mentally ill person died in hospital, a prisoner hanged himself in his cell or a foreign national died while being deported, there was no formal corporate accountability available; no enforceable sanction for the deadly institutional and systemic failings that may have been responsible.”

Liberty said it remained concerned about the extent of exemptions under the 2007 Act, and the high threshold required for charge. However, it said the new offence was crucial.

“It will ensure accountability and encourage best possible practice to try and minimise the risk of deaths in custody,” the group added.

According to Liberty, there have been 333 deaths in police custody over the last decade or so, “not to mention deaths in other detention facilities nationwide. Let’s hope the introduction of this new offence will cut that number”.

Philip Hoult