Three new fire safety crimes have been added to the amendment to the criminal law of the people's Republic of China (11)

The amendment to the criminal law of the people's Republic of China (11) has been approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and has been implemented on March 1, 2021《 The amendment added "dangerous operation crime", revised "crime of forcing illegal and risky operation", "providing false proof document crime", increased the punishment in advance, effectively filled the legal gap, greatly improved the deterrent power, fully demonstrated the national decision to prevent and resolve major risks. In the field of fire protection, the amendment of the criminal law has strengthened the crackdown on the illegal acts of fire safety, strengthened the implementation of the responsibilities of the main body of fire safety, which has far-reaching significance for preventing serious and serious fire accidents.

1、 If you refuse to rectify major fire hazards and stop fire facilities without permission, you can be sentenced

Details

1、 If you refuse to rectify major fire hazards and stop fire facilities without permission, you can be sentenced

New crime of dangerous operation. After Article 134 of the criminal law, an additional article shall be added as one of Article 134: "if in the production or operation, in violation of the provisions on safety management, if there is any of the following circumstances and has a real danger of serious casualties or other serious consequences, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of one year, criminal detention or public surveillance:

"(1) to close down or destroy the monitoring, alarm, protection, life-saving equipment or facilities directly related to production safety, or tamper, conceal or destroy relevant data and information;

"(2) refusing to implement the rectification measures to eliminate the danger due to the existence of major accident hidden dangers, which are ordered to stop production or stop business, stop construction, stop using relevant equipment, facilities, places or take immediate rectification measures to eliminate the danger;

"(3) engaging in mining, metal smelting, construction and other highly dangerous production operations involving the production of dangerous goods without the approval or permission of law."

Content interpretation

The new "dangerous operation crime" changes the standard of responsibility recovery for major accident crime in the field of safety production from "result crime" to "dangerous crime" and "result crime" in parallel, from "after the event" to "before and after the event" in the whole chain. Before the implementation of the amendment, if the fire accident occurs due to the unauthorized stop of automatic fire fighting facilities, damage to fire facilities and equipment or the ineffective rectification of major fire hazards, serious consequences must be generated before the criminal liability can be investigated for such crimes as "major accident crime", "fire responsibility accident crime"; If there is no fire accident, only administrative penalties such as fines can be imposed in accordance with the fire protection law and other relevant laws and regulations. In the future, if there is a real danger of serious casualty accidents or other serious consequences, the above-mentioned acts may be punished with criminal punishment in combination with the specific circumstances

2、 If the company knows that there is a major fire hazard and does not rectify it, it is still possible to organize the operation at risk and can be sentenced

Details

If the second paragraph of Article 134 of the criminal law is imposed on others to operate in violation of the rules and regulations, and thus a major casualty accident or other serious consequences are caused, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years "and is amended to read:" if [the crime of forcing or organizing other people to operate against the rules] forces others to operate against the rules or regulations, or knowingly has serious potential accident and does not exclude them, they still take risks in organizing their operations, thus causing serious casualties or other serious consequences, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years. ".

Content interpretation

The revised criminal law revised the crime of forcing dangerous operation against rules to "order and organize other people to operate against rules and regulations", adding the situation of "knowing that there is a major accident hidden danger but not excluding, still taking risks in organizing operation". That is, if the actor knows that there is a major accident hidden danger, it will not only not be excluded, but organize to continue the operation, resulting in a major casualty accident or serious consequences, it is suspected to constitute the crime of organizing other people to work at risk. In practice, the "major accident hidden danger" shall include "major fire hazard". If the person in charge of fire safety and the fire safety manager clearly know that there is a major fire hazard in the unit and does not rectify it, which causes serious casualties or serious consequences, the production and operation shall still be organized, this crime may be considered.

3、 The fire technical service organization can be sentenced by providing false proof documents

Details

Article 229 any personnel of an intermediary organization who undertakes the duties of asset evaluation, capital verification, verification, accounting, auditing, legal services, etc. who intentionally provide false certificates shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined to "the crime of providing false documents of proof] to undertake asset evaluation, capital verification, etc Any person of an intermediary organization who has the functions of verification, accounting, auditing, legal services, recommendation, safety evaluation, environmental impact assessment and environmental monitoring, etc. intentionally provides false supporting documents. If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; Whoever has one of the following circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined:

（3） Providing false safety assessment, environmental impact assessment and other supporting documents in major projects and projects involving public safety, which cause special losses to public property, national and people's interests. ".

Content interpretation

Previously, in the field of fire law enforcement, the main means of administrative punishment were taken for the investigation and treatment of false safety evaluation documents provided by fire technical service institutions“ The amendment of the crime of providing false proof documents has brought the fire technical service into the punishment scope of the crime. Meanwhile, the punishment for issuing false assessment report has been increased in sentencing, and the act of "providing false reports in major projects and projects involving public security, resulting in special significant losses to the national interests, people's interests or public property" has been increased by raising the legal maximum sentence (from the maximum imprisonment of five years to ten years), More strict pursuit of responsibility will form a powerful deterrent to technical service institutions, and effectively crack down on illegal acts of intermediary agencies issuing false fire safety evaluation documents.