Companies fail to take notice of corporate killing law

21 July 2008

Fewer than half of companies (47%) have implemented occupational road risk management policies and procedures to meet their duty of care responsibilities in the wake of this year’s introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.

And, alarmingly, according to the ‘Lex Corporate Manslaughter Report’, a third of the 229 financial directors, controllers and chief financial officers quizzed from medium and large business did not know whether or not such procedures were in place.

Those who reported that a duty of care policy was in place were asked to identify the most important consideration when implementing the plan from a list of three factors. Almost two-thirds (63%) identified the ‘complexity of the laws’ as the most important factor. Around a fifth (22%) selected ‘cost’, with the remaining 16% selecting ‘time taken to set-up’.

A quarter of those questioned by Britain’s largest vehicle leasing company said compliance with the legislation had had the single greatest impact on their company, from a list that also included changes to emissions-based vehicle taxation and forthcoming changes to business car capital allowance rules.

There were mixed feelings about the financial cost of complying with new laws, with a similar proportion agreeing (30%) as disagreeing (34%) that it was ‘unacceptably high’.

The majority of companies (76%) also felt that the Government had failed to give them adequate notice ahead of the introduction of the legislation with just 24% saying they had been given sufficient warning.