As an employer, from April 2008 you will be liable for work-related road safety. The Department for Transport estimate that ‘up to a third of all road traffic accidents involve somebody who is at work at the time. This may account for over 20 fatalities and 250 serious injuries every week.’

Company vehicles require more than a MOT certificate and a driver with a valid driving license. Health and safety law also applies to work activities when on the road. As an employer, manager, supervisor or self employed person you are required to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all employees and to safeguard others who may be put at risk from work related driving activities.

Many leasing companies provide this service but what about your staff who use their own cars?

Be prepared and act now.

Book and inspection

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Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

1 The offence

• (1) An organisation to which this section applies is guilty of an offence if the way in which any of its activities are managed or organised by its senior managers—
• a) causes a person’s death, and
• (b) amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.
• (2) The organisations to which this section applies are—
• (a) a corporation;
• (b) a department or other body listed in Schedule 1;
• (c) a police force (as defined in section 13(1)). In this Act “corporation” does not include a corporation sole but includes any body corporate wherever incorporated.
• (3) For the purposes of this Act—
• (a) “senior manager” has the meaning given by section 2;
• (b) “relevant duty of care” has the meaning given by section 3, read with sections 4 to 8;
• (c) a breach of a duty of care by an organisation is a “gross” breach if the conduct alleged to amount to a breach of that duty falls far below what can reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances.
• (4) The offence under this section is called—
• (a) corporate manslaughter, in so far as it is an offence under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland;
• (b) corporate homicide, in so far as it is an offence under the law of Scotland.
• (5) An organisation that is guilty of corporate manslaughter or corporate homicide is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine.
• (6) The offence of corporate homicide is indictable only in the High Court of Justiciary.

2 Meaning of “senior manager”

• A person is a “senior manager” of an organisation if he plays a significant role in—
• (a) the making of decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of its activities are to be managed or organised, or
• (b) the actual managing or organising of the whole or a substantial part of those activities.

3 Meaning of “relevant duty of care”

• (1) A “relevant duty of care”, in relation to an organisation, means any of the following duties owed by it under the law of negligence—
• (a) a duty owed to its employees or to other persons working for the organisation or performing services for it;
• (b) a duty owed as occupier of premises;
• (c) a duty owed in connection with—
• (i) the supply by the organisation of goods or services (whether for consideration or not),
• (ii) the carrying on by the organisation of any construction or maintenance operations,
• (iii) the carrying on by the organisation of any other activity on a commercial basis, or
• (iv) the use or keeping by the organisation of any plant, vehicle or other thing.

Further advice.
Book and inspection