Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007

Category: Statutes and regulation · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-22 · ~5 min read

The offence

Section 1(1) provides that an organisation to which the section applies is guilty of an offence if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a person’s death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased. Section 1(2) lists the organisations caught: a corporation, a department or other body listed in Schedule 1, a police force, and a partnership, trade union or employers’ association that is an employer.

Section 1(3) adds the senior management element: an organisation is guilty only if the way in which its activities are managed or organised by its senior management is a substantial element in the breach. Section 1(4)(b) defines a breach as gross if the conduct alleged falls far below what can reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances, and section 1(4)(c) defines senior management as the persons who play significant roles in making decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of the organisation’s activities are managed or organised, or in the actual managing or organising of the whole or a substantial part of them.

Section 1(5) gives the offence its two names: corporate manslaughter in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, corporate homicide in Scotland. Section 1(6) provides that an organisation guilty of the offence is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine. The offence came into force on 6 April 2008.

Relevant duty of care

Section 2 defines a relevant duty of care as a duty owed under the law of negligence, in one of the listed categories: a duty owed to employees or to other persons working for the organisation or performing services for it; a duty owed as occupier of premises; a duty owed in connection with the supply of goods or services, the carrying on of construction or maintenance operations, the carrying on of any other activity on a commercial basis, or the use or keeping of any plant, vehicle or other thing; and a duty owed to a person for whose safety the organisation is responsible by reason of detention or custody. Sections 3 to 7 then carve out or qualify certain public functions.

Orders beyond the fine

Section 9 allows the court, on the prosecution’s application, to make a remedial order requiring the organisation to take specified steps to remedy the breach, anything resulting from it that caused the death, or any deficiency in the organisation’s health and safety policies, systems or practices that the breach appears to indicate. Section 10 allows the court to make a publicity order requiring the organisation to publicise the conviction, specified particulars of the offence, the amount of any fine and the terms of any remedial order. Failure to comply with either order is itself an offence. Section 10 came into force on 15 February 2010.

Individuals

Section 18 provides that an individual cannot be guilty of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of corporate manslaughter, or of being art and part in corporate homicide, and cannot be guilty of an offence under Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 by reference to corporate manslaughter. Section 20 abolished the common law offence of gross negligence manslaughter in its application to corporations and other organisations to which section 1 applies.

None of that insulates individuals generally. A director or manager remains exposed to prosecution for gross negligence manslaughter in a personal capacity and to prosecution under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 where an offence by the company was committed with their consent or connivance or was attributable to their neglect. That personal exposure is a standard driver of directors’ and officers’ cover.

Insurance: fines are not insurable

A fine imposed on conviction for corporate manslaughter cannot be insured. English law will not enforce a contract to indemnify a person against the consequences of their own criminal conduct; the point is one of public policy, and it has been applied to statutory penalties in cases such as Safeway Stores Ltd v Twigger [2010] EWCA Civ 1472. No UK policy validly pays a criminal fine, whatever a broker or an insurer may appear to suggest, and any wording that seems to offer it should be read again.

What can be insured is the cost of responding. Legal defence costs cover, whether under an employers’ or public liability legal defence extension, a standalone legal expenses policy or a directors’ and officers’ policy, is widely available and is the practical protection. Many such wordings make defence costs repayable if the insured is convicted, so the terms matter. Prosecution costs awarded against a convicted defendant are generally treated in the same way as the fine.

The civil consequences of the same death remain fully insurable. A claim by the estate or dependants under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 and the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 is an ordinary employers’ liability or public liability claim, and the compulsory employers’ liability policy responds to it in the usual way. The criminal and civil tracks run in parallel from the same incident, and only one of them is insurable.

What reduces the exposure

Because the offence turns on the way senior management managed or organised the activity, the material that matters in a prosecution is board-level: documented risk assessments, resourcing decisions, how safety reports travelled upwards, what was done about known problems. Insurers underwriting employers’ and public liability, and directors’ and officers’ cover, ask about the same material. The governance work that reduces the criminal exposure is also what improves the terms available.

Frequently asked questions

Can a company insure against a corporate manslaughter fine?

No. Insuring a criminal fine is contrary to public policy in English law and no valid UK policy indemnifies one. Legal defence costs are a different matter and are commonly insured.

What is the penalty for corporate manslaughter?

The offence is triable only on indictment and section 1(6) provides for a fine. The court may in addition make a remedial order under section 9 and a publicity order under section 10.

Can a director be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter?

Not as a secondary party: section 18 prevents an individual being guilty of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the offence. Individuals remain exposed to gross negligence manslaughter in their own right and to section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Does employers' liability insurance respond to a fatal accident?

It responds to the civil claim brought by the estate or dependants. It does not and cannot pay a criminal fine arising from the same incident.

Related entries

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
• Health and Safety Executive
• Employers' liability insurance
• Directors' and officers' insurance
• Fire safety risk assessment
• Commercial insurance UK

This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. It states the position as at August 2026. Last reviewed 2026-08-22. Next review: 2027-02-22. It is general insurance information, not legal advice, and it is not regulated advice on a specific policy.

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.