Corporate Manslaughter

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act has finally arrived.

The changes mean that the requirement to prove the ‘directing mind’ as was required previously will no longer be the only way of demonstrating an organisation or individual is guilty of corporate manslaughter.

Any incident occurring after 6^th April can be prosecuted using the new Act. The organisation will be guilty of corporate manslaughter if the death is caused by a gross breach of its relevant duty of care that is substantially due to the way in which its activities are managed or organised by senior management. This also means that failures of a number of managers can now be added together. A 1994 court ruling also suggests that a person may be deemed a senior manager for only part of their job function.

The relevant duty of care for the purpose of the Act is effectively any duty owed under the law of negligence. This includes:

o   A duty owed by an organisation to its own employees or others working for the company such as contractors

o   A duty owed by an occupier of premises to visitors

o   Duties owed in connection with the business activities such as maintenance work, supply of services

The breach does not have to be the only or major cause, just one of the causes of death.

NEW Plant Managers Safety Training Scheme

The Health & Safety Service Limited are pleased to announce that we are now able to deliver the 5 day CITB Site Safety Plus Plant Managers Safety Training Scheme (PMSTS) as well as standard 5 day course (SMSTS), the 2 day Site Supervisors and the 1 day operatives health and safety awareness course, all of which are ConstructionSkills accredited. All of these courses can be delivered on our clients premises or at our training centre at the e-Innovation Centre at Telford.

Boss Deceives Investigators

A company director has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail following the death of an employee who fell 25 feet through a skylight. 

The director pleaded guilty to a breach of section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and for committing acts intended to pervert the course of justice. The latter charge was brought after it emerged that he had hired safety equipment from a local hire shop after the accident and then told another employee to take it up and install it on the roof so it would look to investigators that it had been in place all along.

Fatalities Rise

The provisional figures released by the HSE show that the total deaths in all industries rose last year from 217 to 241. The annual average over the previous five years was 231.

The accident types that contributed most to the rise in deaths were objects or vehicles overturning and collapsing, moving vehicles striking people and drowning and asphyxiation.

The construction industry saw the largest rise of more than 25%, from the HSE’s provisional figures, showing deaths in construction rose in the 12 months to April 2007 to 77.

23 deaths resulted from falls from height, 16 from contact with moving vehicles and 10 from electrocution.

The Chairman of the Major Contractors Group called the figures “distressing and unacceptable”. He linked the figures to the boom in the construction industry which he said had stretched resources. “I’d suggest that, because of that, people have appeared in supervisory positions with a lack of training and experience”.

A forum of construction employers and trade unions will meet this month to find ways to curb the rising fatality figures and will focus on firms in the house building and re-furbishment sectors which have shown the greatest rise in fatalities.

Construction Guidance

The HSE has issued a new guide to help companies comply with their duties under the new CDM Regulations. The guide, ‘Want Work Done Safely’ is available free at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg411.pdf

Delivering Safely

The HSE have published several documents relating to falls from vehicles including preventing trips and slips from vehicles, safe access to road going vehicles, managing work to avoid falls from vehicles and delivering safely.

These leaflets plus posters and a variety of information and advice are available free from http://www.hse.gov.uk/fallsfromvehicles/index.htm