When negligence on the part of private sector companies leads to deaths, we tend to see prosecutions. So surely the same should apply in the public sector? Consider the case of Hatfield, where senior executives were cleared, but note that they were charged.
Under existing law, a company can only be convicted of corporate manslaughter if a senior individual in that company is guilty of "gross negligence manslaughter".
Over three hundred people are killed each year as a result of corporate negligence, yet only three company directors have ever been successfully prosecuted for corporate manslaughter.
Here's Labour MP Peter Dismore:
Mr Dismore told the BBC: "It is only by putting the senior people in court that they will take safety seriously.
"They should have imprisonment and heavy fines and the courts must have the power to make companies put right the failings that caused the accident in the first place, again backed by very severe penalties if they don't."
The BBC is hot on this, see here and here for other stories. But how many politicians have even been charged (let alone prosecuted) for manslaughter?
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