New backbench push on corporate manslaughter
A new backbench bill is to be published, designed to tighten up the responsibilities of company directors in the case of negligent health and safety practices.
The bill, which will be tabled by the Labour MP for Jarrow, Stephen Hepburn, seeks to hold company directors to account for negligent health and safety practices that cause injuries or fatalities.
Entitled the Health and Safety (Directors Duties) Bill, it will seek to impose “positive” health and safety duties on company bosses.
The bill would require large companies to appoint a board level director responsible for health and safety, and impose a general duty on all directors. There would also be the possibility of jail for directors where serious breaches or negligence resulted in death.
Mr Hepburn came third in this year’s private members bill ballot, meaning that he may well get parliamentary time to table the bill, but it is unlikely to become law without Government backing.
The Government did announce in this year’s Queen’s Speech that it would be introducing a Draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill that could hold companies to account in the event of a death at work where there has been management failure or inadequate safety precautions.
Currently, successful prosecutions must prove that there had been “gross negligence” on the part of a named director. If an individual cannot be held accountable, the company as a whole can escape prosecution. Campaigners hope that new legislation would make it easier to obtain convictions by allowing wider management procedures and the company as a whole to be held responsible.
But, no timetable for the draft bill was announced, and with the next legislative session likely to be short due to the General Election, many of the bills announced in the Queen’s Speech will run out of parliamentary time and fail to reach the statute books.
Unions at the time said they were concerned by the timetable slippage on the bill. They are also concerned that the changes will have little impact – unless individual directors have a statutory responsibility to answer for their company’s health and safety policies and practices.
Speaking today, Mr Hepburn said: “This bill is about an issue which touches every constituency in the land. It cannot be right that people go out to work in the morning and do not come home again yet their family and friends must grieve without hope of justice being done. This bill seeks to challenge this. It seeks to make the safety of workers and the public alike a priority for British boardrooms.”
He has today tabled an Early Day Motion on the subject, which has attracted support from some senior MPs, including ex-ministers Nick Brown, Frank Dobson and Michael Meacher.
The action has been welcomed by the unions, with T&G general secretary Tony Woodley saying: “Labour gave its support to directors’ duties eight years ago. Workers and their families should not have to wait a day longer for the law to be reformed. Giving directors health and safety responsibility will not only make prosecution easier but actually play a role in preventing the causes of death and major injury.”
