Are you ready for the corporate manslaughter bill?
The new Corporate Manslaughter Bill will make it easier to prosecute a company over a breach of health and safety regulations, comes into effect. Under the new offence, companies and organisations can be found liable for a work-related death if actions at a senior level amount to gross breach of a duty of care to the deceased. The legislation removes the need to find an individual responsible, making it easier to convict a business.
It may not surprise readers to discover that in the vanguard of commentators on the new bill are the insurance companies. Their advice is, as always, sound and sensible. Along the lines of: Company directors should evaluate their companies’ health and safety management system, thus stressing their personal involvement as a senior manager of the company. This action will demonstrate a high priority for health and safety matters.
And this rather cynical tone is augmented by a comment from one insurance company spokesman who suggested that it would also help ensure that practices are implemented correctly.
Showing the authorities that senior management cares about heath and safety is not the same as investing in a safety culture which has designed in precautions at all levels of the process. There’s no quick fix for a bad safety system even if it has enjoyed the priority attention of top management.
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