ECA gives its backing to new corporate manslaughter legislation

ECA director David Pollock says: “We welcome the bill and believe it will lead to improvements in this very difficult area of safety law.

“The safety performance of ECA members is already very high but a key test in the bill is legal compliance, which means that companies making an honest attempt at following health and safety regulations should have nothing to fear from the proposed offence. Conversely, companies that shy away from health and safety management will be most vulnerable to the new legislation.”

The ECA also strongly supports the exclusion of individual liability legislation within the bill. According to the ECA’s health, safety and environment manager, Paul Reeve: “The main aim of the bill is to properly address corporate responsibility for a major failing in health and safety management.

“This bill has been nearly ten years in the making and we would be concerned about any attempt at this stage to introduce individual sanctions,” says Reeve. “Such actions would be a major distraction from the final effort to bring in an act that can deal effectively with corporate failures which lead to fatality.”