Richard Schooling’s Blog: 30 July 2007

A long time in politics

A week may be a long time in politics but seven days’ grace was clearly long enough to lift the Corporate Manslaughter Bill over its final hurdle this week.

The stay of execution granted on July 17 allowed time for the Government to settle its wrangle with the House of Lords over prisons and police cells. As a result, the Bill will become law next April.

As has often been said, the importance of the Bill lies in its presumption that the employer, as a corporate entity, may be held legally responsible for someone’s death if that death resulted from a gross breach of the organisation’s relevant duty of care.

Until now, firms have rarely been taken to court over workers’ deaths because it was very hard to prove that a single individual or group of individuals was the “controlling mind” behind the circumstances leading to the fatality.

Now juries will be able to consider how well or badly the organisation as a whole managed its workers’ safety, including complying with relevant guidelines on good safety practice, and potentially impose unlimited fines on severely neglectful businesses.

In a case arising from an at-work driving fatality, for instance, a judge could direct the jury to consider whether the employer had taken steps to comply with the HSE’s guidelines on managing at-work road safety, which provides a straightforward framework for assessing and mitigating risks around driving on business.

However, now that the Bill has made it on to the statute book – albeit in the metaphorical last minute of extra time – perhaps it’s time for the Government to proffer fleets some carrots as well as this new stick.

Safer fleets cost less to run, thanks to fewer accidents, lower fuel consumption and less tired, more productive drivers. Why not reward businesses that invest in driver safety, and encourage the rest to follow suit, with suitable tax breaks?

That would be something a lot of businesses would get behind. Especially as it looks increasingly likely that the enactment of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill might coincide with the start of a full-on General Election campaign next Spring.