Contractors should be liable

Specialist contractors are calling for main contractors to be charged with corporate manslaughter if a death occurs on site under the supervision of a subcontractor known to have a poor management or health and safety record.
The Specialist Engineering Contractors' Group (SEC Group) was responding to the government's draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill. SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein said: "It must be made clear in the legis-lation that an organisation can be responsible for aiding and abetting another organisation to
commit manslaughter by, for example, hiring a subcontractor because it is the cheapest while turning a blind eye to its appalling management or safety record.
"If a death then occurs on site under the subcontractor's management, the main contractor must be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the subcontractor's gross breach of duty."
Another concern raised by the SEC Group is a proposal to identify the responsibility of senior managers, which it argues could hamper a prosecution. It said: "Identifying the actual roles played by managers either individually or collectively - particularly in very large organisations - could be extremely complex."
The SEC Group is also concerned this proposal could undermine one of the central tenets of the reformed law - that corporate manslaughter be aimed at the organisation and the way the organisation managed its risk profile, rather than at the individual.
Klein told CJ: "We welcome the proposals as they now stand as they focus more on the
organisation's rather than on the individual's responsibility.
"However, in seeking to establish the criminality of the organisation, the draft Bill seeks to identify senior managers as responsible.
"We are arguing that the Bill should focus on the collective way an organisation is managed rather than on its senior managers," Klein said.
"The prosecution shouldn't have to prove that some or all of the organisation's senior managers played a significant role in that process."
SEC Group also argues that the jury should be able to take into account whether an organisation failed to take out membership to a relevant health and safety registration, licensing or qualification scheme.
"This is absolutely key to the legislation because it would result in companies ensuring that they comply with the law and register with an appropriate health and safety scheme," Klein said.
The Bill is expected to go before Parliament this autumn.