Sentencing guidelines will “send a chill through corporate UK”
Companies face a hike in fines from next February for health and safety, food safety and hygiene offences, and corporate manslaughter.
New Sentencing Council guidelines, published this week and due to take effect on 1 February 2016, provide for unlimited fines and a starting point of £7.5m on organisations with a turnover of more than £50m, for corporate manslaughter. Smaller organisations with a turnover of up to £2m could face a fine of £450,000 or more.
The guidelines cover offences committed by organisations and individuals in the course of their professional lives only. The guidelines must be followed unless the judge or magistrate believes this would not be in the interests of justice. However, judges will also be asked to take into account the offending organisation’s profit margin, and the impact the sentence may have on its employees and on its ability to make restitution to victims.
Fines for organisations committing food safety offences range from £100 to £3m, depending on severity and level of culpability. For individuals who breach safety and food hygiene regulations, the penalty could be up to two years in custody or/and an unlimited fine.
Gerard Forlin QC, of Cornerstone Barristers, says the guidelines will “send a chill through corporate UK”.
“Many defendants, particularly larger ones and individuals, will feel it unfair that a sentence imposed on 1 February 2016 could be, say ten times higher than for the same offence on 31 January 2016. This will make the advising of corporations and individuals very difficult for lawyers, and I envisage many procedural difficulties and hurdles will need to be overcome by the courts, particularly in the early stages.”
Jon Cooper, partner at Bond Dickinson LLP, says: “In the majority of cases, fines for health and safety offences will go through the roof. For example, a recent prosecution of Baxters Food Group Limited resulting in a fine of £60,000 for a non-fatal accident might, under the new guidance, increase to a fine between £550,000 and £2.9m.”
Laura Cameron, partner at Pinsent Masons, says: “Many of those currently subject to proceedings may be well advised to enter early guilty pleas in appropriate cases in order to expedite their cases.”
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