Happy Birthday Corporate Manslaughter Act

There are no new duties or obligations under the Act, nor is the new offence part of health and safety law. It is, however, specifically linked to existing health and safety requirements. An organisation will be guilty of an offence if the way its activities are managed or organised by senior managers result in a person’s death and amount to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.

The Act reinforces the obligation on a company to comply with existing health and safety legislation and makes it easier to prosecute companies causing death through negligence. As such, it is essential that your company’s health and safety management policies and procedures are up to date and enforced throughout the workplace. Directors and senior managers must be aware of their responsibilities and receive training as appropriate. It is too early to say how many successful prosecutions this legislation will lead to on an annual basis, but it is clear business owners need to ensure they are taking this matter seriously.

One area that some employers have neglected in the past is that of occupational road risk. Numerous reports show that driving is the most hazardous part of many people’s work, the Department for Transport estimating that around 200 road deaths and serious injuries each week involve someone at work. Yet still many businesses have failed to take the issue of road safety seriously.

A growing area of concern is the rising number of employees using their own cars for business travel, such vehicles often being described as ‘grey fleets’ because of the lack of information known about them. Grey fleets often sit outside normal company car reporting and policing channels and some employers fail to check even basic details. This growing trend has created a large number of unchecked and unmanaged drivers who are a potential health and safety time bomb for employers under the new legislation. According to a report by Arval UK, smaller businesses are most at risk because they often don’t have the resources for full time vehicle management.

— 83% of businesses have no procedures in place to check that non company

cars are regularly maintained

— 74% do not ask employees for a valid MOT certificate for their vehicles

— 35% do not check the driving licences of non company car drivers

— 53% have no policy for checking that the vehicle is insured for business use.

— 56% have no policy for reporting accidents in non-company vehicles.

The Act forces businesses to review the risk of work-related driving activities and ensure that they have in place a comprehensive written ‘Driving At Work’ policy covering both company and non- company vehicles. It should then be communicated to all employees.

The best way to reduce your exposure to the Corporate Manslaughter Act is to undertake a thorough review of your health and safety procedures. Once this process is completed, you could consider talking to your local insurance broker about covering you if the worst did happen.