In order to be convicted of corporate manslaughter an organisation has to be proven to have committed a gross breach of its duty of care. Precisely what constitutes ‘gross’ in this context is therefore important.
The threshold for establishing negligence has reached the ‘gross’ level is extremely high. It is defined by Section 1(4)(b) as “a breach of a duty of care…..[that]… falls far below what can reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances”.
To emphasise how high the gross breach threshold is, juries in some recent corporate manslaughter trials have been given the following judicial direction (originally from R. v. Misra [2004] EWCA Crim 2375):
“Mistakes, even very serious mistakes, and errors of judgment, even very serious errors of judgment, and the like, are nowhere near enough for a crime as serious as manslaughter to be committed […..] Concentrate on whether […the conduct you are considering…] fell so far below the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent and careful senior house officer that it was something, in your assessment, truly exceptionally bad, and which showed such an indifference to an obviously serious risk to the life of [the deceased…]