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Embargoed:
00.01 am, Thursday, 24 February 2005
New Director Conviction Statistics Published
Only
11 company directors have ever been convicted of manslaughter
following a work-related death, research by the Centre
for Corporate Accountability reveals. Five of the
directors were sentenced to imprisonment, another
five had a suspended sentence and one was given a
community service order.
The
research also shows that in the two and a half years
between April 2002 and November 2004, only 27 directors
have been convicted for a health and safety offence
brought by the Health and Safety Executive. 8 involved
deaths. The research showed that during this period:
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no
directors were prosecuted of health and safety
offence in Wales, or the North West Region of
England |
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only
one director was prosecuted for health and safety
offences in each of the following regions: East
Midland, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Scotland. |
The
data - obtained principally from HSE's own prosecution
database which does not show convictions currently
under appeal - shows that the regions with the most
convictions are London with six convictions and the
Eastern region of England with 12.
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Details
of all the prosecutions by year and by region
can be seen by clicking
here |
A
director can be prosecuted for a health and safety
offence if it can be shown that an offence by a company
is the result of 'any neglect' on the directors part,
or if the director 'consented' or 'connived' in the
offence. To read more about this, click
here
The
new data is published at a time
when the Government is still to state whether or not
it will support a private members bill - the Health
and Safety (Director Duties) Bill - that would impose
a duty upon company directors to take "all reasonable
steps" to ensure that their company complies with
health and safety law.
The
Bill, tabled by Labour MP Stephen Hepburn is coming
up for its second reading on 4 March 2005. The Bill
is being strongly supported by the T&G and UCATT
as well as safety organisations and charities including
the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA). David
Bergman, Director of the CCA stated:
"It
is important to recognise, despite the large number
of deaths and injuries, how little accountability
there is for company directors. In the same period
that 27 directors were convicted, over 1000 companies
were found guilty of health and safety offences.
Whilst
questions can asked of the HSE - as the principle
body responsible for inspection, investigation and
prosecution - it is the CCA's view that the absence
of duties on directors makes it much more difficult
for the HSE to identify what, in law, is expected
that directors should know about health and safety
in their company and what action they should be
taking. As a result this makes it much more difficult
to hold them to account for health and safety offences.
He
went onto say that
"Although
the Directors Duties bill will assist in making
accountability easier, the primary purpose of the
directors duties bill is to ensure that directors
take the action that would both prevent deaths and
injuries and ensure that they do not face criminal
prosecution"
In
2000 (see here) the government
supported introducing legislation to impose safety
duties on directors, but more recently has preferred
to support a 'voluntary' approach. The voluntary approach
consists of publishing 'guidance' to inspectors setting
out what it would like directors to do and taking
steps to encourage them to take action.
Those
supporting the bill argue that ensuring directors
take certain steps in relation to their company is
too important to leave to voluntary measures.
In
July 2004, the Select Committee on Work and Pensions
stated that:
"The
Government reconsiders it decision not to legislate
on director's duties and brings forward proposals
for pre-legislative scrutiny in the next session
of parliament."
It
stated that:
"The
imposition of legally binding duties on directors
would increase the likelihood of directors taking
ownership of health and saftey problems, positively
impact on the current levels of preventable work-place
death and injury and create more of a level playing
field between those directors who take the health
and safety responsibilities seriously and those
who do not."
The
CCA's source for most of the HSE prosecutions is HSE's
own prosecution database. The CCA has monitored manslaughter
prosecutions for four years.
The
Centre for Corporate Accountability is a human rights
charity advising those bereaved from work-related
deaths, and working on issues of safety, law enforcement
and corporate accountability.
Previous
Government Committment
In
June 2000, the Government published a strategy document
on 'Revitalising Health and Safety'.
Action
Point 11 of this document states:
The Health
and Safety Commission will develop a code of practice
on Directors' responsibilities for health and
safety, in conjunction with stakeholders. It is
intended that the code of practice will, in particular,
stipulate that organisations should appoint an
individual Director for health and safety, or
responsible person of similar status (for example
in organisations where there is no board of Directors).
The Health
and Safety Commission will also advise Ministers
on how the law would need to be changed to make
these responsibilities statutory so that Directors
and responsible persons of similar status are
clear about what is expected of them in their
management of health and safety. It is the
intention of Ministers, when Parliamentary time
allows, to introduce legislation on these responsibilities."
(emphasis added)
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