Shipowners and operators in the UK have spent the past month assessing the potential impact of the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007, which came into force on 6 April this year. Early comments to Fairplay have suggested that the impact could be enormous. Under the new law, the crime of 'corporate manslaughter'is committed where an organisation's senior management has committed a 'gross' breach of a duty to take reasonable care to assure the safety of employees or the public, and which results in death. The act provides for huge fines and a 'publicity order; which may mean giving shareholders details of the conviction, with advertisements in national newspapers. This contrasts with prosecutions under existing health and safety laws, where brief details appear on a website but go largely unnoticed.
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