We listened with interest during a recent IOSH webinar on Corporate Manslaughter / Corporate Homicide. It feels that in the talks we run for clients at our breakfast and lunch clubs I’ve been talking about little else since the act was introduced and Cotswold Geotech faced the first prosecution.
At the time talk was of how one person / company must be first and that the legislation needed to the tested before moving on to larger game. Something mentioned in the webinar changed this.
We have always spoken about major disasters and how, in the past, the many layers of management within the businesses responsible for Zeebrugge and Hatfield made it impossible for them to face prosecution as a ‘controlling mind’could not be found – what wasn’t so clear at that stage was that this test was never fully removed.
There are currently 141 cases opened and 56 prosecutions ongoing, almost all against very small businesses. Further, in almost all cases the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has also charged both the company and individuals with health and safety offences under HASWA (S.37 and similar).
Given the rhetoric before the Act was introduced the current situation seems bizarre. An Act which was written to address the imbalance between large and small businesses which retained the crucial Achilles heel of the old legislation and a new piece of legislation which does much the same job as the existing but with much higher fines (a minimum of £500,000 in fines) which can only be applied effectively against small businesses.
It leads you to question who wrote the legislation and for what purposes? Its true to say that it has brought health and safety into sharper focus for most large businesses but in terms of their being brought to book for serious failings… well, the jury is still out.
If you need help or advice on health and safety please contact us or request a call back – or call and speak to a friendly expert on 01453 800100
