First corporate manslaughter charge

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced the first charge of corporate manslaughter under the new legislation, a year after it came into force.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was the result of a decade of campaigning by unions and safety organisations. The law made it easier to prosecute firms for negligence following a work-related death. The CPS said last month it was charging Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd in relation to the death of Alexander Wright on 5 September 2008.

Wright, who was employed as a junior geologist, was taking soil samples from inside a pit which had been excavated as part of a site survey when the sides of the pit collapsed, crushing him.