The Board of Directors – are you doing all you can?
In light of the forthcoming prosecution under the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd (Concerning the death of a junior geologist who was crushed when the sides of a pit in which he was taking soil samples collapsed; the company has been charged with corporate manslaughter & an individual director has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter under common law) I thought that I would shed further light on this legislation.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law; for the first time, organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. The Act clarifies the criminal liabilities of organisations where serious failures in the management of health & safety result in a fatality.
Organisations that take their obligations under health & safety law seriously are not likely to be in breach of the new provisions. Nonetheless, organisations should keep their health & safety management systems under review, in particular, the way in which their activities are managed or organised by senior management.
This list is designed to check your status on health and safety at board level.
- How do you demonstrate the board’s commitment to health & safety?
- What do you do to ensure appropriate board-level review of health & safety?
- What have you done to ensure your organisation, at all levels including the board, receives competent health & safety advice?
- How are you ensuring all staff – including the board – are sufficiently trained & competent in their health & safety responsibilities?
- How confident are you that your workforce, particularly safety representatives, are consulted properly on health & safety matters, & that their concerns are reaching the appropriate level including, as necessary, the board?
- What systems are in place to ensure your organisation’s risks are assessed, & that sensible control measures are established & maintained?
- How well do you know what is happening on the ground, & what audits or assessments are undertaken to inform you about what your organisation and contractors actually do?
- What information does the board receive regularly about health & safety, e.g. performance data & reports on injuries & work-related ill health?
- What targets have you set to improve health & safety and do you benchmark your performance against others in your sector or beyond?
- Where changes in working arrangements have significant implications for health & safety, how are these brought to the attention of the board?
HSE has published guidance for directors on their responsibilities for health & safety – ‘Leading health and safety at work: leadership actions for directors and board members’ (INDG417) [5].
The guidance sets out good practice for boards of directors as to how to provide leadership in health & safety so as to help their organisation meet its legal obligations as an employer under the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 & gain the business benefits arising from effective, sensible health & safety management
