4 March 2004 - Norton Rose Release Research on New Corporate Killing Bill
Norton Rose, the international City law firm, has released research on the government’s proposals for a new corporate killing bill. The research focused particularly on companies who operate potentially hazardous lines of business such as the rail and construction industries.
The research, The Norton Rose Report on Corporate Killing: the View from Business, was carried out Between December 2003 and January 2004, with 105 organisations being interviewed including senior safety managers and board directors. Two thirds of companies said that the proposals will have a negative impact on business. While 59% of the companies interviewed are not convinced that the new legislation will improve safety.
Key findings in the report:
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60% of companies thought that the government’s proposals were primarily a political manoeuvre to satisfy voters.
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59% of companies said their greatest professional fear about a work-related death - outside the fundamental consideration of personal conscience - will be the impact on corporate reputation.
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(79%) thought that one individual member of the company board should have overall responsibility for safety issues.
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(55%) actually thought that individual senior company directors should be held personally and criminally liable for failings within their organisations.
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68% did not have confidence in the Health & Safety Executive’s ability to carry out fair and effective investigations into corporate killing incidents.
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Legislation was seen as ineffective because of inadequate enforcement, and almost half the companies surveyed thought that new legislation was not actually needed.
Copies of The Norton Rose Report on Corporate Killing: the View from Business are available to order from the Norton Rose website.
This news story was taken from the Norton Rose website.
