Bill Wilson MSP

An end to derisory fines for killing?  Corporate criminals may no longer be able to plead poverty to avoid fair penalties.

Courts in Scotland may soon be given the ability to order background inquiry reports into the financial circumstances of companies convicted of criminal offences.  Presently convicted businesses are effectively allowed to present their own version of their accounts which, campaigners suspect, leads to many lying about their financial status and so escaping significant penalties even for serious offences involving deaths.

After today’s Stage 1 Debate on the , Dr Wilson said, “I am delighted that the Scottish Government signalled its support for one of the suggestions I originally made in my proposed Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines) Member’s Bill and that it might now be incorporated in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill.

“As I said in my speech today, quoting Louise Adamson of Families Against Corporate Killers, ‘An annual work-related death toll in excess of 1,600 is tragic testimony to the fact that the current system of fining companies for health and safety offences has not served as strict enough punishment or strong enough deterrent.’

“Evidence suggests that in half of all cases resulting in the conviction of a company, in which a fatality occurred and for which a fine was imposed, the value of the fine was £12,500 or less!  A major reason for this is surely the fact that judges may be underestimating the size of fine a company can reasonably pay – companies can plead poverty and there is no mechanism for checking the facts.

“Prof. Hazel Croall, in a paper prepared for the previous Scottish Executive’s Expert Group on Corporate Homicide, recognised this and suggested ‘that courts should routinely receive a form of Corporate Inquiry Report and should, where necessary, have powers to appoint a relevant expert to provide a professional assessment, paid for where appropriate by the company itself’.

“This is what I am now proposing as an amendment to the Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines) Bill.  It would, of course, not just apply to convictions for health and safety offences but to all criminal offences, including environmental ones, which I also believe tend to be under-penalised.

“Companies should not be able to flout legislation to boost their profits in the knowledge that can effectively set the level of their fines if they are convicted; killing people and destroying the environment should not be profitable.”

Note to Editors

Information on Dr Wilson’s proposed Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines) Bill