Labour MP, Frank Doran, from North Aberdeen, has presented a bill to enact a law that would place compulsory safety and health laws on directors and owners. He introduced the bill regarding a Company Director’s Liability in a recent debate in the House of Commons.

He applauded the effort of introducing the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007, but said that the act had serious glitches and served no serious purpose because it neither brought forward new policies on safety and health, nor set definite duties on company owners or directors to implement such policies. The bill was needed to patch loopholes in the earlier act.

Doran criticized the previous act, saying that voluntary approach had hardly worked, and most of the entrepreneurs who had accepted the regulations given by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2001, had not put them into operation.

He said that to secure the health and safety of both employers and employees, employers must put the policies into action properly and not be careless. If independent adoption of such regulations is not happening, then legal enforcement should take place to get bosses and workers on the same level so that proper health and safety measures were put into practice. The inconsistencies in the present laws had to be amended, in order to save lives and sources of income in England.

Previous attempts by personal injury lawyers, victim’s advocates, safety campaigners and trade unions to get legally enforceable safety and health rules introduced in companies did not bear fruit, but now Doran’s bill has been scheduled for a second reading.

IOSH courses, accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, from Workplace Law Training are designed to give managers and supervisors all they need to know to help their organisation find the best ways to lead and promote health and safety.