(UK) MPs have called for a tightening up of the proposed new offence of corporate manslaughter, to ensure justice for relatives of workers killed due to employer negligence.; w* P0 d% l8 v5 `' T* ]0 {% A
The draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill, is designed to make good a long-standing Labour commitment to punish companies whose failure to meet health and safety standards leads to the death of workers.
u/ _" N) s2 R- r8 B) D* V But a joint report by the House of Commons home affairs and work & pensions committees has warned that the Bill, as currently drafted, may let some big firms off the hook and create "perverse" incentives to treat health and safety less seriously.
& h# k1 C, V8 D- A1 @& n2 C The report revealed divisions within the cross-party committees, with Conservatives voting against a recommendation, backed by the Labour majority, for directors and managers to be prosecuted as individuals with a maximum penalty of 14 years' jail.
2 i. ]3 e _4 f; a5 v The draft Bill targets gross failings by the senior management of an organisation, rather than focusing on the wrong-doing of one individual at the top of the company.
) x3 m$ C9 r6 ]6 B But the report urged the Government to introduce an additional offence of "secondary liability for corporate manslaughter" to be used against individuals personally responsible for the organisation's failing.
7 O$ C6 ~" n! s) i It also strongly criticised the wording of a key clause in the Bill, which currently makes companies liable to prosecution only for deaths caused by the negligence of "senior managers".( }4 Y k- Q5 O. }1 H5 o& n
The MPs argued that this created a "perverse incentive" for senior directors to delegate decisions on health and safety to more junior staff in order to avoid the danger of prosecution.1 b1 Q/ V0 m9 X. E% V
And it might mean large corporations escaping prosecution over a death at one of a number of factories or sites, while a smaller company with only one factory would find itself in court over an identical incident.6 X2 t6 {% s, g& W/ e# H
The report said that juries should instead be asked to decide whether "management failure" was to blame for the death |