New corporate killing law gets a lukewarm welcome

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 finally passed into law in late July, but unions have warned that much more regulation is needed if negligent directors are to be punished.

The new law applies only to corporations, not individual directors, and imposes no additional duties to promote safety at work. No directors will go to prison under the legislation, which cannot be used against employers who endanger workers’ safety unless someone is killed.

Nor are there any effective punishments. The main penalty available is a fine, although the Act also allows judges to impose a publicity order on any convicted organisation, requiring it to publicise its own conviction in any media in a manner determined by the court.

The Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) campaign was particularly critical of the new law. Spokesperson Dorothy Wright said it “falls far short of what is needed and what was promised by the government–.

Details of the Act, which will come into force on 6 April 2008, can be obtained from the Ministry of Justice at www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corporatemanslaughter2007.htm