Manslaughter knock-ons

I was at a British Safety Council conference on executive leadership in health and safety yesterday and in asession on the Corporate Manslaughter Act, barrister Oliver Campbell was considering the possible effects of the legislation.

One thing he suggested was that the possibility of high fines (and the guidance for judges on these has yet to be issued but in the last draft suggested a normal starting point of 5% of corporate turnover, which would mean tens of millions for larger corporations) will mean that the defendants are more likely to contest the charges than they have with health and safety cases previously.

Campbell argued this might mean that insurers, who have covered companies' expenses for legal action before may start to exclude thembecause the proceedings will be long and expensive.

We've focused before on the possible fines and got an early indication of how scary and disruptive the first investigations have been for the companies involved (beyond the trauma and disruption any faltality on site inevitably causes).

The insurance point is just another example of the Act's potential impact.

Louis