| Last week saw the first ever charge for Corporate Manslaughter under a new law that came into force in April last year. As a result a director now faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and his company, an unlimited fine.
A decision to prosecute can take years, yet this was turned round within 7 months; a clear indication of the significance of this new legislation and the importance of this debut case.
The law behind the case was introduced to punish sloppy management that contributed to a person’s death. Through its directors and senior managers, a Company can be held responsible for fatal accidents if the way that work is managed or organised, causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of the duties towards the employees and other people.
Although this is the first such case under this legislation, it should come as a timely prompt for all businesses to review health and safety. Whatever the outcome of the case, the main lesson for business must be that health and safety can no longer be someone else’s problem. The whole senior management of a Company might be held to account over one individual’s failing. All businesses must critically assess how work is undertaken, who is at risk from this and how that risk can be eliminated or managed to a minimum.
A Company convicted of Corporate Manslaughter will face an unlimited fine, may be forced by the Court to publicise it’s failings in the press and take specific action to put its house in order to prevent a re-occurrence. The impact of any one of these sanctions will be dramatic. Combined they could be catastrophic.
I believe the essential purpose of this legislation is to bring about a change in management culture and greater collective responsibility for senior mangers. Companies and their directors need to take this very seriously. The risks of failing to comply with health & safety are now much more significant and it is clear that the authorities are going to use prosecutions to hammer the message home.
In the current economic climate, companies are quite understandably looking at ways of keeping overheads down. If however they are involved in any serious accident, investigation or prosecution they do really need to get expert representation as soon as possible to minimise the risks which are now clearly much greater under the new law
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