Gobert writes: Further, through its requirement that persons who play a significant role in the formulation and/or implementation of organisation policy be shown to have made a substantial contribution to the corporate offence, the Act threatens to perpetuate the same evidentiary stumbling blocks that frustrated prosecutions under the identification doctrine., In commenting on the draft bill in 2005, Clarkson noted that the requirement of identifying senior managers threatens to open the door to endless argument in court as to whether certain persons do or do not constitute senior managers.. However it should be noted that of the 21 convictions up to 5th April 2017, none have been against a council or local authority and the largest company convicted employed about 550 staff. 41 41. A key case demonstrating this principal is Tesco Supermarkets v Nattras, brought under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968. [18] There had been inadequate training, assessment, supervision and testing and, with a lack of understanding of the risks of signalling failure, these were not monitored effectively. clapham junction crash victims names The signalling technician who had done the work had not cut back, insulated, nor tied back the loose wire and his work had not been supervised, nor inspected by an independent person as was required. Rail 'disasters': 1988 - Clapham. The essay will also establish if the enforcement of this act has had any impact on the law, which corporate manslaughter is concerned with. The collision was caused by the driver of one of the trains passing a signal at danger; he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 months in prison plus six months suspended . In finding no case to answer for the corporate manslaughter charges against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Justice Coulson clarifies that a gross breach would need to reprehensible [or] atrocious in the context of a gross negligence manslaughter. The Clapham Junction railway crash occurred on the morning of 12 December 1988, when a crowded British Rail passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, England, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. Travel and Life. This is a question for the jury to decide if the case proceeds to deliberation and section 8 of the act gives directions on the factors to consider including whether there was a breach in Health and Safety legislation and if so, how serious the failure was and how much risk of death it posed. clapham rail disaster corporate manslaughter