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28 March 2005 - IOSH Urge Stakeholders to
Respond to Corporate Manslaughter Consultation
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The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is urging
stakeholders to respond to the Governments' consultation paper of the reformed
proposed Corporate Manslaughter Bill before the closing date of 17 June 2005.
Although this long awaited Bill is welcomed by IOSH, they would
like to see the new reformed Bill covering the following three areas:
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"The test applied for establishing gross management failure
should not be dependent on proving the organisation sought to profit from the
failure to comply with health and safety requirements."
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"It should cover all employing organisations."
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Formal duties for all company directors with the HSE guidance to
have Directors’ responsibilities for health and safety, achieving the
status of an Approved Code of Practice.
Mr. Ian Waldram, President of IOSH commented:
"The publication of this draft Bill is an achievement for all
those individuals and organisations, such as IOSH, who have long campaigned for
this offence. We would urge all interested parties to respond to this
consultation to ensure the Bill will serve as an effective deterrent and as a
driver to improved health and safety standards."
Also welcoming the bill, but disappointed that individual
directors are not ultimately held to account by the threat of imprisonment, Mr.
Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary said:
"We are pleased that the Government has honoured its
commitment to publish draft legislation on corporate killing in this session of
Parliament. This proposed legislation will help make the workplace safer by
providing a new sanction against those organisations who show scant regard for
the health and safety of their employees.
"The TUC recognises that the draft Bill covers a number of
complex areas and we are pleased that the Government has agreed that the
legislation should apply to Crown bodies, but are disappointed that the draft
bill does not threaten individual directors with the ultimate sanction of a jail
sentence."
Further information on the responses and consultation of the
proposed new bill can be accessed by clicking the following link:
Corporate Manslaughter Bill Responses and Consultation
Article by Alexandra Johnston
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