Corporate manslaughter – time to get cracking

On 6 April 2008 the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 comes into force. A detailed guidance note has been published by the Ministry of Justice. We have taken the key action points from the guidance notes and added a number of our own to help ensure that your organisation is in good shape before 6 April 2008.

• Use the Act as an opportunity to think again about how risks are managed. Consider how successfully the safety management system has been operating to date and whether any improvements in procedures for health and safety can be made.
• Remember that the offence does not require organisations to comply with new regulatory standards. But it will mean that companies which disregard the safety of others at work, with fatal consequences, are more vulnerable to very serious criminal charges.
• Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you can side-step the offence by delegating responsibility for health and safety. Inappropriate delegation of health and safety matters will still leave organisations vulnerable to corporate manslaughter and homicide charges. The board must take ultimate responsibility for checking that the health and safety function across the organisation is being adequately carried out.
• Factors a court is likely to consider under the new offence will range from: the systems of work used by employees; their level of training and adequacy of equipment; issues of immediate supervision; the organisation's strategic approach to health and safety as well as its arrangements for risk assessing, monitoring and auditing its processes.
• Put in place an accident management plan. This is likely to involve, among other things, training staff in how to deal with investigating authorities, instructing solicitors and experts at the earliest opportunity to managing any reputational issues that may arise.
• Keep health and safety at the top of your "to do" list. Preventing accidents from happening (fatal or otherwise) is the best form of defence.
• Test whether your health and safety procedures are likely to withstand detailed examination. Have you audited compliance recently?
• Cultivate a strong health and safety culture in which everyone within your organisation takes responsibility for the health and safety of themselves and others.
• Engage the active participation of workers in improving health and safety. Liaise with them on health and safety issues, listen and act upon concerns raised.
• Appoint a health and safety director, but remember that simply making such an appointment will not absolve other board members of their responsibility for health and safety.
• Ensure the person is competent, properly trained, and has sufficient authority and budget to make sure that health and safety risks are properly managed.
• Check your insurance cover to ensure that legal costs incurred as a result of an investigation/prosecution under the Act (and any appeal) would be covered.
• Make sure that the standards you set are achievable. It can look worse to have agreed unrealistic targets and come nowhere near to achieving them, than to have successfully raised the standard by achieving more realistic goals.
• Ensure the board regularly reviews health and safety issues by having it as an agenda item at every meeting. Where appropriate, record any discussions on health and safety matters in the minutes of the meeting. Include action points agreed upon given a timeline for compliance and clear communication of who is to be responsible for any action agreed. 
• Increase health and safety training where appropriate.