HSC guidance spells out duties to those at the top

Company directors and board members have been targeted by new guidance from
the Health and Safety Commission designed to clarify their health and safety
responsibilities.

Directors’ Responsibilities for Health and Safety aims to ensure health and
safety risks are properly managed and that directors take adequate measures to
protect staff, contractors and the public.

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The role of directors in health and safety has come under the spotlight
since the Government set plans in motion to bring in new laws creating a new
offence of corporate killing. This would make companies and public bodies
criminally liable for deaths caused by poor safety management. It could even be
extended to make managers personally liable for failings that lead to deaths in
the workplace.

HSC chairman Bill Callaghan said, "Health and safety is a boardroom
issue. Good health and safety reflects strong leadership from the top and that
is what we want to see.