HSC supports explicit safety duties on directors

Company directors may soon be subject to legal duties on safety, following successful lobbying of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) by unions and others.

Last month the HSC decided that civil servants should "explore the possibility of imposing duties on directors" of private sector and public bodies. It rejected advice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that it should simply produce "authoritative guidance".

TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said he was delighted by the decision, adding: "We must make sure that new and effective legislation is drawn up at the earliest opportunity. We recognise that this achievement would not have been possible but for the campaigning by both the trade unions and groups such as the Simon Jones Campaign and the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA)."

At present, individual directors do not have explicit legal duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Instead, duties are generally imposed on "employers", meaning the company. Only section 37 of the Act, which sets out the circumstances in which a company director can be prosecuted, imposes an implicit duty on directors to take action if they are aware that their company is committing an offence and are aware of reasonable and practicable steps that can be taken.

Campaigners want the Act to be amended so that inspectors can serve improvement notices on directors, with prosecution under section 37 if they fail to comply.

"It is now for the HSE to produce a paper setting out the legislative options," said CCA director David Bergman. "We look forward to being part of the discussion on the nature of the legal change."

The CCA's briefing on company director's duties is available at www.corporateaccountability.org/dl/Directors/hscbriefingdec05.doc