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The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 received Royal Assent in July 2007 and will come into force on 6 April.
As an organisation what will I need to do to ensure both the safety those who either work for me or could come into contact with my work activities are kept safe from death?
The act considers for an organisation to be guilty of an offence:
“ if the way in which activities are managed and organised causes a person’s
death, and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the
organisation to the deceased.”
Individuals must also understand that the health and Safety Executive (HSE) will
still have the option to prosecute Directors or Senior Managers where evidence
of gross negligence is evident.
It is therefore of paramount importance that all of our clients have legally compliant health and safety management systems in place, competent persons to run them and ensure such systems are regularly audited and documented.
It is of the utmost importance that client companies realise they can no
longer just pay lip service to their health and safety management systems.
Not only must “suitable and sufficient” recorded risk assessments be in place,
control measures indicated within those risk assessment must be monitored
appropriately and records kept.
How do we ensure our manage systems are suitable and sufficient and legally compliant?
Chartered Safety and Health Practitioners are subjected to a stringent Code
of Conduct and are required by their chartered status to both deliver and
maintain the highest up to date standards for their clients. It is therefore
very important that companies, to ensure the highest standards, either employ
the services of such persons to manage fully their systems or have them
regularly audit such systems.
Where do companies often fail to manage health and safety to the relevant
standard?
From our experience several areas can identified where companies may need to
improve standards to ensure they meet their legal duty of care.
1. Workplace Activities
Have all workplace activities been considered and arrangements devised to ensure
hazards and risks have been eliminated or minimised?
An example of such an activity could that of driving either a company vehicle or
a private vehicle on behalf of the company:
1) Is the vehicle suitable for the work activity and the driver?
2) Is the vehicle subjected to regular before use checks and maintenance
examinations by a competent person, and are records kept?
3) Is their evidence requested and records kept of the following:
a. Business Insurance
b. MOT Certificate
c. Appropriate driving license and any endorsements
4) Has the driver undertaken vehicle driving update training in the last three
years and have records been kept?
5) Has the driver received appropriate training, information and instruction
related to his/her work related driving activities and the controls in place to
ensure risk is minimised and are records kept?
2. Risk Assessments
Have risk assessments been undertaken on all activities and significant findings
recorded?
Are the risk assessments suitable and sufficient?
Companies must first ensure that all workplace activities have been assessed to
ensure that significant risks have been identified and dealt with appropriately.
To ensure risk assessments are suitable and sufficient not only must all the
hazards have been identified but all significant risks either eliminated or
minimised as far as is “reasonably practicable”. This later term of “reasonably
practicable” not only requires the consideration of the degree of risk against
the time, trouble and effort to minimise that risk but also the relevant
standards that may apply to that particular work activity to ensure that
controls are to the legal standard required.
3. Monitoring
Our experience shows us that many companies do risk assessments and record them
in the belief that they have met the legal requirements and can defend
themselves should an incident occur where they may be subjected to legal action.
In truth documented risk assessments are only part of the evidence required to
defend any allegation that a company may have been grossly negligent in meeting
their duty of care.
Evidence must be available for companies to be able to prove that they not
only undertake suitable and sufficient risk assessments but also through
consistent health and safety management monitor and document the controls put in
place by such assessments to ensure standards are maintained.
Where such controls have been found not to have been followed or are
inappropriate then a documented review of the original risk assessment must take
place to ensure any failings have been dealt with appropriately.
4. Auditing
For peace of mind and to ensure the whole health and safety management system is
both legally comprehensive and working to ensure compliance a regular audit
should be undertaken by a competent person (e.g. Chartered Practitioner) and any
findings acted upon.
5. Health and Safety Plan
Good evidence that companies take health and safely seriously is that of a
written annual health and safety plan where the company lays out in detail how
they intend to meet their objectives (often set down in the health and safety
policy) for the forthcoming year. Alongside the health and safety plan would be
the appropriate funding ring-fenced to ensure lack of money does not become an
excuse to implement actions identified by the target times set down.
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