Fresh calls for new corporate killing offence

The prospect of a new corporate killing offence will again come under discussion this week, potentially increasing the legal pressure on employers to better manage health and safety in the workplace.

The All Party Parliamentary Occupational Safety and Health Group will meet with families of people killed in work-related deaths and disasters on 20 March.

The event is supported by the TUC and the Centre for Corporate Accountability, who will be lobbying MPs to bring forward legislation to enact a new law of corporate killing‚ (a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in 2001) and reforms to health and safety law that will impose safety duties upon company directors, increase the level of fines that courts can impose upon convicted companies and abolish Crown immunity.

This is not a new debate. As long ago as 1996, the Law Commission proposed a new offence of corporate killing. While there has been much discussion, the Government does not seem in a hurry to give the proposals and parliamentary time.
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