The United Kingdom’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act has significantly influenced how companies think about travel risk—not just in the U.K., but across the globe. The law, which went into effect in 2008, allows company senior executives to be held responsible for deaths if management failures are judged to breach of duty of care.
Relevance to travel risk management
The Act does not apply to deaths of employees outside the U.K. (unless they die on British-registered aircraft or ships), but it does apply to all work-related deaths in the U.K., even if the employing organization is registered in another country. And while the Act does not define gross failure of management or specifically reference travel, legal and security experts say the Act has three major implications for business travel:
- Risk assessment – Organizations should carry out risk assessments for every journey involving the U.K. For nearly all business trips, the assessment can be a simple, generic evaluation.
- Communication – Organizations must ensure their travelers have understood and acknowledged the duty of care responsibilities for themselves and their employers.
- Driving – Driving by employees is by far the greatest travel-related risk within the U.K., but it is an activity that often goes unmanaged. Consider reducing risk by, for example, banning self-driving immediately after long-haul flights.
As of March 2014, only six prosecutions had been concluded under the Act. However, corporate manslaughter cases are complex and slow, and many are in the pipeline. A common theme in prosecutions so far has been the prosecuted company’s lack of risk assessments or failure to follow risk assessments. All prosecutions resulted in heavy fines for the company.
Laws that treat corporate negligence as a crime are on the books in Canada, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Australia. The U.K. Act, which came later, is considered tougher. So far, only one other country, New Zealand, has moved forward with a similar bill. But jurisdictional boundaries have not contained the influence of the U.K. Act: Security experts say multinational companies feel obliged to make duty of care in other countries consistent with what they provide in the U.K.
Learn more about travel risk management essentials by talking to your account manager and downloading BCD Travel’s latest paper, Travel Risk Management: Keeping Business Travelers Safe and Secure.
