New Bill for Increasing Safety Responsibility of Directors up for Discussion
A new bill is being presented for discussion later this year calling for more specific duties for company directors. A Labour MP from Aberdeen North has presented the new bill called the Health and Safety (Company Director’s Liability) Bill which has already been up for debate in the House of Commons earlier this year.
MP Frank Doran has said that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which was a fairly recent legal provision to address the issue of lack of proper safety measures in companies was not completely effective in prompting the right kind of action in companies. While the Act specified the legal repercussions of failure to have proper safety mechanisms in an organisation, it did not clearly explain the specific framework of duties which directors and the top management cadre are expected to fulfil. The Act came into effect in 2008.
He also remarked that the code of practice, brought into force by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2001 has not been incorporated fully into the system by most of the organisation which assured support for it.
According to MP Frank Doran, this kind of voluntary approach to safety and health requirements was not effective because most of the companies had simply ignored the requirements. The need of the day was for a specific duty-setting law which will clearly state what is required of directors and also outline the repercussions in no uncertain terms, of not following these requirements. This is what the new bill aims to do, he explained.
Doran’s bill has been welcomed by employee unions, personal injury lawyers, safety campaigners, and others who have been looking for some concrete, effective changes in company structures to bring in better safety and health provisions. They hope that this bill which will bring directors on the same level as lower level employees where safety rules are concerned will achieve this end.
The Bill which is set for a second reading in April is expected to save many lives and prevent several workplace accidents across organisations in the
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