12 November 2002

Queen Speech Watch!

Will the Labour Government make good on its promises for legislative change on Safety and Accountability?

Since coming to power in 1997, the Labour Government has made a number of legislative promises in the area of safety and accountability.

The most well known is to reform the law on corporate manslaughter and enact a new offence of Corporate Killing. To see information on this click here.

However there are a number of others that are often forgotten that were set out in a document called "Revitalising Safety: Strategy Document" which was published over two years ago in June 2000. To see more about this document, Click Here

We are looking at the Queen's Speech, to see whether the Government will fulfil the pledges set out in that document.

There are four areas of promised Reform

Directors Duties
Removing Crown Immunity
Increasing Penalties
Allow Private Prosecutions

For more information, contact 0207 490 4494

Imposing Safety Duties upon Directors
Action Point 11 of the Strategy Document states that:

"It is the intention of Ministers, when Parliamentary time allows, to introduce legislation on these responsibilities."

To read more on this, Click Here

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Remove Crown Immunity
Action Point 15 of the Strategy Document states that:

The Government will seek a legislative opportunity, when Parliamentary time allows, to remove Crown immunity from statutory health and safety enforcement.

To read more on this, Click Here

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Increasing Sentencing Power
Action Point 7 of the Strategy Document states

The Government will seek an early legislative opportunity, as Parliamentary time allows, to provide the Courts with greater sentencing powers for health and safety crimes. The key measures envisaged are to extend the £20,000 maximum fine in the lower courts to a much wider range of offences which currently attract a maximum penalty of £5000; and to provide the courts with the power to imprison for most health and safety offences.

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Allow Private Prosecutions
Action point 10 of the Strategy Document states that:

The Government will consider an amendment to the 1974 [Health and Safety at Work] Act (when Parliamentary time allows) to enable private prosecutions in England and Wales to proceed without the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

To read more on this, Click Here

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Directors and Safety Responsibilities
Company directors control companies. Their decisions determine the extent to which a company operates safe systems of work and whether or not its activities pose risks to its employees or members of the public. Similar controls are exercised by those who run public sector organizations.

Yet the power held by directors does not come with responsibility. Although strict financial duties are placed upon individual directors, the law fails to impose any legal duties requiring them to ensure that their company operates safely. Currently, the law allows company directors to insulate themselves entirely from safety issues within their company; as a result they can remain untouched when unsafe or dangerous practices within the company cause death or injury.

The safety of workers and the public requires that individual directors have a clear vested interest in the safety of their company. Imposing safety duties upon them will both make companies safer as well as assisting in ensuring that directors can be held personally to account when they have acted negligently or recklessly.

The Health and Safety Commission has published guidelines for company directors (and the 'board members' of all other private and public organisations) on their 'health and safety responsibilities'. But these are voluntary and impose no legal obligations.

The CCA would like the Government to:

• impose a legal duty upon all company directors to take reasonable measures to ensure that their company abides by safety law;

• require the Board of Directors to appoint amongst themselves an individual director with particular responsibility for safety, to report back to it on safety issues within their company;

• Ensure similar arrangements exist in relation to the public sector organisations.

Remove Crown Immunity
Crown bodies (and Parliament itself) are currently immune from prosecution both for health and safety offences and for manslaughter. In the 21st century, there is no justification for departments of the government or bodies (like the prison service) which are controlled by the Government, from being above the law and exempt from accountability, Crown and Parliamentary immunity are outdated concepts that simply allow Government organisations to commit criminal offences, which may result in death or major injury, with impunity.

To read more on Crown Immunity, Click Here

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Allow Private Prosecutions
It is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive and Local Authorities (and the Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) to prosecute organisations and individuals for health and safety offences. This responsibility should clearly remain with these bodies, but the possibility for an injured worker or bereaved family to initiate a private prosecution is an important constitutional safeguard against possible abuse by these prosecution bodies. Under the current law, individuals can initiate private prosecutions for health and safety offences - but they first need to obtain the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions. There is no justification for such a requirement since there are enough practical and legal obstacles impeding any inappropriate prosecutions. As the Law Commission states, "the right of prosecution should be unrestricted unless some very good reason for the contrary exists" - and in our view no such reason exists in relation to health and safety offences. The Government agrees with this and so it should reform the law now.

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1. The Centre for Corporate Accountability is an independent nonprofit advice, research and lobbying group at the forefront of seeking to ensure that health and safety law is properly enforced and that deaths and injuries resulting from corporate activities are subject to adequate criminal investigations, and, where appropriate, prosecution and effective sanctions. It's charitable activities are funded by Joseph Rowntrees Charitable Trust.