Nigel Grainger brings together a related set of skills that all fleets require, to greater or lesser
degrees, but which may not have the staffing or the skills to fulfil those needs.
Bringing his wealth of experience in all areas of fleet management he offers a bespoke service through his company Fleet Risk Consultants, providing you with a cost effective fleet that complies fully with your 'duty of care' requirements.Corporate Manslaughter Legislation – Are you going to Jail?
Under Corporate Manslaughter Legislation the short answer to this question is NO, as an individual you cannot be sent to jail or even be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter. BUT, before you relax too much there is plenty of other legislation that you can be prosecuted for if your vehicles are involved in accidents or are poorly managed.
You should consider the Corporate Manslaughter Legislation seriously because the most likely way that your business will be involved in the death of someone is in connection with a Road Traffic Collision. The odds of your business killing an employee whilst at work are 1 in 1.5 million, which when compared to the odds of matching all six numbers in the UK National Lottery (1 in 14 million) are not good odds at all.
The Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 is an additional piece of legislation that sits alongside existing regulations and allows prosecutions for breaches where a controlling mind cannot be readily identified. This allows the enforcement bodies to cut through multi level management structures and penalise the business for its failings, rather than find the controlling mind who was at fault. The legislation has raised the awareness of the business community and the enforcement agencies too, so they will be looking to use this legislation if they can find a suitable breach in your systems or policies.
That means that you policies and systems should be as robust as possible whilst still allowing you to operate your business. After all what is the point of having a business that cannot trade? Do not make the policy too loose as you will have too little control, but if you make it too restrictive you will be unable to enforce it. You would be better getting a professional to help you through the process as they write such policies for organisations on a daily basis and will advise you what will work best for your business.
A good set of policies and procedures will not only protect you from prosecution under Corporate Manslaughter Legislation, but will also aid the defence process should you be prosecuted under any of the other relevant legislation. These are usually The Road Traffic Act 1988, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. These pieces of legislation allow the prosecution of individuals and will be used as a basis for the corporate prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter Act.
So, in summary, if you are not managing the use and maintenance of your vehicles and other travel arrangements and you don’t protect yourself, strong legal council is recommended.
There are ways to avoid prosecution that are not overly complex or difficult to implement, but they do need absolute commitment from all employees and employers to operating in a safe and efficient manner.
Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant