New Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act Introduced

Fleet managers will be in the firing line of any prosecution under new corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide legislation, which will come into force in April next year.

Following months of wrangling between the House of Lords and the House of Commons over the exact details of the legislation, the Government’s long-awaited Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill finally received royal assent just days before Parliament entered its summer recess.

The new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will see companies prosecuted for gross breaches of their duty of care in respect of employees and other road users killed in road crashes.

Commenting on the new Act, Justice Minister Maria Eagle said: “The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will make it easier to prosecute companies who fail to protect people. We are sending out a very powerful deterrent message to those organisations which do not take their health and safety responsibilities seriously.”

The law was inspired by a series of high-profile disasters such as the Potters Bar and Paddington train crashes and the Zeebrugge ferry disaster all of which raised fears that company executives were not being held properly accountable for the deaths of customers and employees.

Previously, a company could only be convicted of corporate manslaughter if there was enough evidence to find a single senior person guilty. In reality that proved virtually impossible - only seven small organisations have been convicted - so the new law is designed to enable the courts to consider the overall picture of how an organisation’s activities are managed by its senior managers, rather than focusing on the actions of one individual.

Under the new law an organisation, or a senior individual within the organisation, can be prosecuted for gross negligence as a result of management failures that lead to deaths. Companies found guilty of someone being killed as a result of the gross failure of senior managers, for example in the use or maintenance of vehicles or unrealistic driver schedules causing fatigue, could be subjected to an unlimited and possibly multi-million pound fines and a heap of potentially highly damaging and embarrassing publicity.

The new law, which applies to every vehicle driven on company business irrespective of the owner, makes it the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the vehicle is roadworthy and correctly insured.

Checks that employers should undertake might include ensuring that:

• Employees holds a valid license to drive the vehicle
• Cars are roadworthy and have a current MoT (if more than three years old) 
• Vehicles are insured for ‘business use’ 
• Cars are regularly serviced. 
• Employee are carrying out basic maintenance checks on oil, water, washer fluid, tyre pressures and tyre tread depths on a regular basis.

As well as ensuring companies keep thorough audit trails of all company and privately-owned vehicles driven on business, it is also imperative that businesses monitor driver hours, journey patterns and work schedules.  Measuring and monitoring are the watchwords for businesses in terms of numerous issues including setting realistic work patterns, ensuring drivers undergo regular eyesight checks, having rules on the use of prescribed drugs and investigating the reasons for any driving incidents with changes implemented as a result of feedback.

Legal experts say that fleet managers and other senior managers will be in the firing line of any prosecution. As a result, control measures must be in place to give managers and their companies a reasonable defence in the event of any prosecution.

Lawyer David Faithful, a consultant to solicitors Lyons Davidson and an advisor to RoadSafe, the automotive industry led charity which aims to reduce deaths and injuries caused on the road and promote safer road use, said: “Fleet decision-makers now know the legislation is coming into force so it is a final wake-up call for companies that have done nothing to manage the at-working driving risks posed by employees”.  “If a driver is involved in a fatality then the police will visit the company. They will go through offices and records with a fine toothcomb. Unless companies can demonstrate on day one of the investigation that they have an efficient system in place in terms of health and safety and occupational road risk management then they will have a problem.”  “Condition of the vehicle, condition of the driver and the purpose of the journey will all be investigated. Even if there is no eventual prosecution, the inquiries will still cause difficulties for the business.

Further information can be found by visiting: http://www.hse.gov.uk/roadsafety/index.htm

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