SURVEY: legislation will increase red tape and costs

Government proposals to introduce corporate-killing legislation will impact negatively on business and increase bureaucracy and costs, a survey by City firm Norton Rose revealed this week.

More than two-thirds of 105 top business managers polled said that the legislation - proposed by the Home Office in 2000 but due to be published in draft form this spring - was 'a political manoeuvre' designed 'to satisfy public opinion'.

A similar number lacked confidence in the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) ability to carry out fair and effective investigations into corporate-killing incidents.

They said the HSE was under-resourced, over-burdened and open to political pressure.

More than half (59%) did not think the proposals would improve health and safety in the workplace, and feared that being labelled 'corporate killers' could threaten the survival of businesses.

Some 79% believed that one member of a company board should have overall responsibility for health and safety issues, and 55% said that an individual director in a company should be personally and criminally liable for its shortcomings.

Peter Rees, Norton Rose's head of dispute resolution, said: 'The level of scepticism about the proposed legislation was quite surprising...

The results confirm that these businesses are interested in health and safety, but fear the whole thing could become bureaucratic and not do the job.'

Colin Ettinger, vice-president of the Association Of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: 'Companies are legal personalities and it is only right that they should share the responsibilities as well as enjoying the privileges.

These should include the law having the ability to prosecute them if they have committed acts that amount to gross negligence in the workplace.'

A Home Office spokeswoman said: 'This area of the law raises a number of complex issues and we want to make sure that we get these right before we announce how we intend to take forward reform.'

Jeremy Fleming