UK: Responsible companies 'have little to fear' from new manslaughter bill

Companies who take their health and safety responsibilities seriously have little to fear from the new Corporate Manslaughter legislation, Norwich Union’s casualty risk manager Phil Grace said this week.

He was speaking after a one-day conference in London (Thursday March 22) organised by JSB* on the Corporate Manslaughter Bill currently going through parliament. He reassured employers that if they were taking all reasonable steps to protect their workers’ safety then they need not fear a manslaughter prosecution.

But he warned that all commercial companies ran the risk of a fatal accident, and they needed to be responsible about protecting their employees.

“Good employers focus on minimising risk in the workplace, not on a defensive approach where they simply try to cover their backs. That is not managing risk,” he said.

Grace did not envisage his advice to clients on risk management changing at all once the Bill is enacted. “The main change is that the government has dropped the requirement to successfully prosecute a senior manager for manslaughter before the company can be found guilty. But the courts will still have to be satisfied that there was gross negligence on the part of the company before a prosecution is successful. Gross negligence requires a very high degree of guilt, and most of the time, I am glad to say, companies are not grossly negligent.”

An example of gross negligence he cited was the successful manslaughter prosecution of the MD of a company that used heavy machinery to cut and polish stones. ”The machinery had a special safety guard that had been disconnected, and as a result a man was killed. The MD was aware that the guard had been disconnected and he knowingly allowed that state of affairs to continue, a clear case of gross negligence."

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