Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings will be involved in the first ever corporate manslaughter prosecution, taking place in Bristol Crown Court next February.

The company has been charged with offences under the Corporate Manslaughter Act and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 as well as breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act following the death of junior geologist Alexander Wright.

Mr Wright, 27, died in September last year when the sides of an excavated pit collapsed around him as he collected soil samples in Stroud.

In addition to the charges levelled against the company, Director Peter Eaton has also been charged with common law manslaughter and for breaching section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act regarding neglect on his part as Director.

After Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings were charged in April this year, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that this was to be the first case brought under the 2007 Act.

Ms Leonard, who reviewed the case for the CPS Special Crime Division, explained the powers held by the new legislation.

"Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 an organisation is guilty if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death, and amounts to a gross breach of duty of care to the person who has died," said Ms Leonard.

Aidan Carr partner at Rowlands and who specialises in the area of law said "The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was enacted as a response to the low level of successful prosecutions against companies charged with gross negligence manslaughter – less than 10 organisations have been convicted of gross negligence manslaughter since 1992.

The Act is supposed to make it easier for the Prosecution to establish guilt where death results because of the way in which the company's activities were managed or organised by its senior management and equates to a substantial element in breaching its duty of care to the deceased.

There will be intense interest in the outcome of this trial as it will give practitioners an insight into how the courts will be applying the new Act.

Although the Act was introduced following criticism of the acquittal of large organisations, smaller companies operating in high risk areas such as those involved in the construction industry must also bear in mind their potential liability under the Act.

The death last month of a scaffolding worker in Hastings serves to underline the importance of organisations, both large and small of having management and safety systems in place which discharge their responsibility to employees."