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May 20, 2005
New legislation
The government is promising to bring forward new "Corporate Manslaughter" legislation - on the back of a raft of other things. I wonder if they and their usual crew of incompetent civil servants will get this right? It is a very difficult issue, one which the Health and Safety lobby have been trying to get for some time, and it has the potential to destroy small businesses and cripple big ones. It also has the potential to seriously damage the ability of the armed forces, fire and rescue services, and the police to act.
While I can see the rationale behind the proposal and the need to do it in some cases, what can easily get lost in this is the ability to use initiative in dealing with a fast moving and dynamically changing situation. If we are not careful there will be created a situation in which the fire and rescue services will not take action, the police will not respond, and large corporations move their "hazardous" operations offshore. They will do this because, in the case of the fire and rescue services, any action they could take carries a risk of injury (all their activities do!) and thus, the officer in charge will legitimately be able to say that he could not place anyone at risk lest he be charged!
Naturally, those whose "strategic" planning - or lack thereof - has created the situation where a fire fighter, a policeman, or a member of the armed forces is likely to be exposed through lack of the right equipment or the lack of sufficient numbers, will be "protected" - because they sit in Whitehall and will argue that it was nothing to do with them. Any law of this nature MUST contain a provision which allows the "fault" to be traced right back to the originating organisation, and that includes the Civil Service departments that control the money and strategic policy which the local authority officials must work with.
Somehow, given who will be drafting the new law, I doubt we will see it being that extensive. It is much more likely to be used to crucify any "capitalist" activities and to restrict the service offered by the police, fire and armed services.
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 20, 2005 06:52 AM
Comments
Correctly drafted, Corporate Manslaughter legislation would be desirable, but you put your finger on the real need which is a direct trace of responsibility right back to the relevant government department and its appointed politicians, and the civil servants drafting it. There is a real need to make our elected politicians and their professional advisors directly responsible for the legislation they produce and the effects of it on the social and economic welfare of the public.
The plethora of legislation now presenting in the commons is to a large extent already covered by laws on the statute book. Perhaps the seeming frenzy the commons likes to present excuses the astonishingly long holidays and inevitable voting of higher salaries and pensions for MPs (now overdue by my calculation). The economics laureate James Buchanan won his Nobel prize for his Public Choice Theory, which points out that politicians are more likely to put through legislation which benefits them and their administrators. I suggest the converse is equally true that any legislation which may adversly affect them is unlikely to be enacted. So lets make them more directly accountable for what they do.
Posted by: harryj at May 20, 2005 03:29 PM