Corporate manslaughter: Transforming how businesses operate

Matthew Judge discusses how the new Corporate Manslaughter Act is due to transform business travel and advises on the role HR departments must play when staff travel on company business.

Do your employees travel on domestic or international business? Do you know where they are at each step of their journey, their trains, flights, and hotel arrangements? Have you taken the appropriate duty of care to ensure their safety?

If the answer to any of these questions is no then read on, as the new Corporate Manslaughter Act (Corporate Homicide Act in Scotland) will be coming into force this April and will have a direct impact on how you run your business.

The Act brings with it the new offence of corporate manslaughter/corporate homicide. Put simply, it means that an organisation will be directly responsible, if any of its business activities result in a gross breach of a duty of care that causes the death of an employee/s.