Corporate Manslaughter Law a ‘damp squib’

Under the new legislation companies may face higher fines of up to 10% of turnover, or more in the most serious cases. And for the first time the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will make government bodies liable for prosecution by lifting their Crown immunity.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of trade union Unite, said: “Individual directors or senior managers will still not be held responsible for health and safety failures that result in the death of either their employees or members of the public.” Construction industry union Ucatt was even more damning, describing the law as “the dampest of damp squibs”.

Ucatt general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “Only by creating the possibility that directors will go to jail will there be a change of culture in the construction industry. “The new Act will not save the life of a single construction worker,” he said, adding that in 2007, 77 construction workers were killed at work.