How will the KSF help boards deal with the new Corporate Manslaughter legislation?
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which will come into force on 6 April 2008, means that an organisation will be guilty of the offence of corporate manslaughter or homicide if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care. A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way its activities were managed by senior management and will have occurred ‘where there were attitudes, policies, systems or accepted practices that were likely to have encouraged, or tolerated, such failings’. Clearly, an organisation that is properly applying the KSF will have a robust system in place to identify and address development needs which will mean that potential weaknesses and failings will be highlighted and dealt with.
