Corporate Manslaughter Act enforcement should move business continuity ‘human factors’ up the agenda in the UK

In April 2008 the UK Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 comes into force.

Between 1992 and 2005, at least 3,452 workers were killed in industrial accidents in Britain. Charges were brought in 34 of those cases and there were convictions in seven. The government estimates those accidents have cost the UK £32 billion in lost productivity and ill health of workers. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 aims to increase the pressure on businesses to make health and safety a high priority and one of the key areas which will be scrutinised as a result of the new legislation is that of the ‘lone worker’.

Statutory rules mean that senior managers must:

- Undertake appropriate risk assessments for lone workers;
- Make provision for lone workers who may be faced with a risk of violence;
- Put contact procedures in place for emergencies so that the alarm can be raised and prompt medical attention provided if there is an accident;
- Ensure lone workers are medically fit and suitable for the lone-working role.

Such human factors are effectively a business continuity issue. Lone workers often carry out mission critical work and have specialist and specific skills sets which are hard to replace, especially temporarily. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 may encourage businesses to start to look at business continuity as being more than information, processes and infrastructure and really start to consider where human resources fit into the business continuity management spectrum.

New product aims to assist in lone worker safety
TBS, the Enterprise Mobility expert, has announced the launch of a product to help companies protect lone workers.

The TBS Personnel Safety Locator (PSL) works on a mobile PDA and provides companies with the first product to integrate health & safety, risk assessment and location based monitoring tools to protect and monitor remote workers.

The PSL product is the result of mobile technology convergence and integrates GPS and wireless communications with the back office systems. The result provides a real-time view of remote human assets where ever they are.

Steve Reynolds, managing director, TBS, said: “Risk assessment and lone worker protection must become a priority to all organisations in providing duty of care. A large number of senior managers do not think this applies to them because of the white collar nature of their businesses. They are wrong.”

Contact TBS on 0207 8199333.

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•Date: 25th January 2008• Region:UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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