Health & Safety

Death Bosses to be Shamed

Companies which flout corporate manslaughter legations will be forced to take out national newspaper adverts spelling out why they have been prosecuted.

Firms will also be required to pay for any 'remedial action' to put right health and safety failings and the cap on fines has now been lifted, with firms potentially facing penalties running into tens of millions of pounds.

The largest ever fine imposed on a company was the £10 million slapped on Balfour Beatty in 2005, later reduced to £7.5 million on appeal, following its part in the Hatfield rail crash. And in the same year gas giant Transco was fined £15 million when a pipeline exploded in Scotland in 1999, killing four people.

January 2008