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Bosses must brush up on safety for new law

Business bosses must not assume that health and safety departments will "bear the brunt" of this April's new corporate manslaughter legislation, according to one legal expert.

David Leckie, a partner in commercial litigation at Scottish law firm Maclay Murray and Spens, advised managers to sort out insurance matters ahead of the introduction of the rules.

"The fines for companies found guilty of the new offence are unlimited and could be huge," he wrote in Accountancy Age.

He continued: "The current proposals are for fines in the region of 2.5 per cent to ten per cent of gross annual turnover, averaged over a three-year period."

Mr Leckie suggested that bosses pay more attention to their 'safety spend' as this would face detailed analysis by officials in the even of a workplace fatality.

Under the new corporate manslaughter rules, any company found by police and health and safety representatives to have "cut corners" in relation to safety will provide powerful grounds for a jury to hold it responsible for a death.

Quantum Risk Management are leading health and safety consultants

Posted on 07/03/2008

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