Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007

Finally after 10 years of promises, a new law came aimed at punishing those whose lack of concern for health and safety at work causes the deaths of their employees, has been given royal assent on 26th July!

However, many believe the new law completely fails in that it does not bring to account the directors of the companies concerned and that it will not be any deterrent to those who really see the health and safety of their workforce as an area ideal for cost cutting.

With the news this week of the appalling trend of workplace deaths within the construction industry rising yet again, will this law have any effect - most think not.

Several unions have reacted strongly saying that the law does not go far enough and does not meet the promises made by the Labour government for the last 10 years:

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said, "Even though unions wanted the bill to make individual directors personally liable for safety breaches and penalties against employers committing safety crimes to be tougher, we hope it will mean the start of a change in the safety culture at the top of the UK's companies and organisations.

The catalogue of avoidable workplace deaths in recent years has highlighted in stark terms the need for a change of attitude over safety in UK boardrooms. To make a real difference, we now need to ensure that this law is accompanied by a new legal health and safety duty on directors and a requirement on companies to report annually on their workplace safety culture."

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of construction union UCATT, said "'The issue of directors' duties will not go away because without them the construction industry will not become an appreciably safer industry."

The GMB believe it does not go far enough, with their national safety officer John McClean saying, "it does not go far enough in that individual directors and employers may still be able to evade prosecution for their negligence which results in serious injuries and deaths. GMB sees this bill as a starting point in the ongoing campaign to make senior managers liable as individuals for negligent behaviour."

ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said: "If train drivers cause an accident they can go to prison - yet the bosses who provide them with equipment which may be faulty and cause an accident will get off scot-free."

Hilda Palmer of Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) said the failure to make directors more responsible means there will be relatively little deterrent effect. "This is very much a business as usual Bill and comes at a time when deaths at work are rising, when enforcement action is dropping and when the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is being decimated. The fight for justice and prevention of unnecessary deaths at work will have to go on.", she argues.

Full details of the new law is available on the Ministry of Justice Website and can be downloaded as a pdf file.

Source: GMB, TUC, UCATT, Risks

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