What is Corporate Manslaughter?

We will save this station

I have just been looking at some of the figures people have reported on how long it has taken them during time tests to drive from Ebbw Vale Fire Station to Brynmawr and onto Blaina and they seem to be at odds with what the Fire Service would have us believe.

Remember the time tests were taken on a clear day with clear roads and with good visibility which is not always the case.

Now I believe that if Blaina Fire station is closed down to save a few pennies and as a result of that closure a person loses their life because there was no cover from Blaina, then I believe after reading the law on Corporate Manslaughter, that there would be a very good case to charge the Fire Service (Huw Jakeway as the CFO) with Corporate Manslaughter - how this would affect the Fire Authority I have no idea.


 Section 1: The Offence
An organisation to which this 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.

Elements of the Offence
The following needs to be proved:

•     the defendant is a qualifying organisation;
•     the organisation causes a person's death;
•     there was a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased;
•     there was a gross breach of that duty;
•     a substantial element of that breach was in the way those activities were managed or  organised by senior management; and
•     the defendant must not fall within one of the exemptions for prosecution under the Act.

Therefore the reviewing lawyer will have to consider how the fatal activity was managed, or organised, throughout the organisation, including any systems and processes for managing safety and how these were operated in practice. A substantial part of the failure within the organisation must have been at a senior management level.

Well you can read the rest yourself, but by submitting incorrect information to the Fire Authority, admitting their risk evaluation system is flawed and by announcing that there would be adequate and timely cover for the people of Blaina and Nantyglo, which is easily disproved, it looks as though some time down the road we could see Huw Jakeway in jail should Blaina Fire Station be closed.