Companies may now face manslaughter charges
August 15th 2006

Corporations can now be successfully prosecuted for manslaughter following the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill introduced to Parliament last month.

Described by the TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber as: “a long time coming,” several bodies have been campaigning for its introduction, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) which wanted to make organisations accountable in instances where they had caused death by behaving recklessly as well as securing justice for victims.

While the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is satisfied that the new offence will target organisations and not their directors as individuals, meaning that neglectful companies are answerable in law without encumbering employers with unreasonable burdens, the TUC and RoSPA are still keen for directors to actually be allocated specific responsibilities. It stresses that director behaviour in relation to health and safety is going to start coming under much greater scrutiny.

Roger Bibbings from RoSPA also suggests that with the new bill coming before Parliament: “Now is the time for all organisations to check out their governance arrangements for health and safety risk management and to learn from the good practice of businesses which have established themselves as clear leaders in the field.”

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