facilitation

[Orin Hargraves]

This isn’t strictly an American dialect question but I know there are some
Brit and some legal minds on the list, so I’ll give it a try: a BBC news story
today

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/3854207.stm)

notes that some individuals have been charged with “conspiracy to commit
facilitation” in the recent deaths of some cocklers trapped by the rising tide
in Morecambe Bay.

(1) What is “facilitation”?
(2) Is it a new designation in English law? I don’t find it treated in
dictionaries.
(3) What’s the US equivalent, if there is one?

Many thanks,

Orin Hargraves