The ECA has offered its support for the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill published last month.

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

鈥淭he 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.鈥�

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

鈥淭his bill has been nearly ten years in the making and we would be concerned about any attempt at this stage to introduce individual sanctions,鈥� says Reeve. 鈥淪uch 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.鈥�

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor