Piper Alpha: Corporate killing laws 'failure' as work deaths double

According to new provisional Health and Safety Executive data, there were 26 deaths in the workplace in the past year - 15 more than in pre-pandemic 2019/20 when there were just 11 fatalities.

Thursday marked the 35th anniversary of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster, which killed 165 of the men on board, 30 of whose bodies were never recovered.

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The accident is the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and industry impact.

But safety campaigners say that it remains a "glaring example" of safety failures going unpunished and they say more than three decades on current legislation fails to provide proper justice to bereaved families.

Health and Safety Executive data shows there were 14 more deaths than in 2021/22 and seven more than the annual average for the past four years.

The analysis which only takes into account those accidents reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations which spark HSE inquiries shows that Scotland's death rate as a result of industrial harm is now more than twice that for the rest of Britain.

While Scotland's death rate is at 0.95 deaths per 100,000 workers, across Britain it is at 0.41.

Scottish Hazards say the death toll recorded is the tip of the iceberg as it does not encompass other industrial fatalities such as fatal diseases including Covid-19, workplace related suicides, and non-rail transport accidents, including on the road, air and at sea.

And they believe the deaths should give fresh impetus to having new legislation that ensures companies are properly held to account.

Moves to create a new Scottish offence of corporate homicide were first announced by then justice minister Cathy Jamieson in November, 2004 but they have never materialised, despite being recommended by an expert group set up by what was then the Scottish Executive.

Ian Tasker, chief executive of Scottish Hazards said the the current legislation is a "failure" against a "concerning trend of the number of deaths in the workplace going upwards".

"We want effective legislation that ensures employers through negligence are held to account," he said.

"Since the Act was introduced there has been no prosecutions which is a sign of an ineffective piece of legislation.

"Motorists who don't reach the right standards are prosecuted for culpable homicides and get jail sentences, why are failures in the workplace treated differently."

The Scottish Trades Union Congress said the rise in workers dying as a result of industrial harms was "a sobering, frankly galling reminder of the chronic weaknesses of corporate homicide legislation in the UK".

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “No worker should go to work and not return home.

“In the 17 years since it was passed, there has not been a single prosecution under the Corporate Homicide Act. We believe it is too narrowly drawn and therefore does not act as an incentive to improve corporate working practices.

“Urgent reform of the Act must be a priority if we are to hold employers to account for any failings in their health and safety. Workers’ families deserve nothing less than justice and fairness when fighting for the memories of their loved ones."

The 2007 Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act (CMCHA) was introduced in response to a number of large-scale disasters, including the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster and the prosecution of utility firm Transco which was fined £15m - a then UK record - after being convicted for breaching health and safety laws from an explosion in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire which killed four people in December 1999.

The blast, caused by a leaking gas main, destroyed the home, leading to the deaths of Andrew and Janette Findlay and their children Stacey, 13, and Daryl, 11.

Transco was said to have "shown a complete and utter disregard for the public."

The court ruled in August, 2005, that it was possible to convict of culpable homicide only if the court could identify an individual or group of individuals being a directing mind in the company. The charges of culpable homicide were held as irrelevant and were subsequently dismissed.

Just three months later an expert group set up by ministers recommended a new offence of corporate killing and ministers were said to have been seriously considering the proposals.

The experts recommended that a new offence of corporate killing through recklessness be put on the statute book.

It would mean organisations whose actions or failings resulted in death could face prosecution and courts should have a range of penalties, including imprisonment.

Experts said the Transco experience highlighted the practical difficulties of bringing a case.

The document decided: "There is significant public dissatisfaction in Scotland with the lack of prosecution against individuals."

But the recommendations have never materialised into Scottish legislation.

Two years after the 2005 Transco case came to the CMCHA which provided that an organisation could be guilty of corporate manslaughter or, in Scotland, corporate homicide where it could be shown that the way in which its activities were managed or organised caused a person's death, and amounted to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.

But Scottish Hazards say that the since the Act was brought in there have been no prosecutions.

It was supportive of the Culpable Homicide (Scotland) Bill proposed by Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Claire Baker that failed to get enough Scottish Parliament support that aimed to give families of individuals killed due to an employer’s recklessness or gross negligence greater legal powers to hold them accountable.

When the bill was proposed in November, 2018, 17 people died on average annually in industrial incidents over the previous five years but there had not been a prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 in the previous decade.

The bill supporters argued that although a company can be pursued through health and safety legislation and fined, it is very difficult to convict them of culpable homicide, even when the Lord Advocate recognises the crime and wants to bring forward criminal charges.

But its opponents said that the bill as currently drafted could introduce new confusion into the way corporate responsibility for workplace fatalities is assessed, by broadening current narrow requirements too far.

The Bill fell at Stage 1 of the parliamentary process, in January, 2021 with 26 votes for and 89 against.

Two days ago,  a Scots haulage company was fined £150,000 after a driver was electrocuted by overhead power lines.

Grant Borton, 25, an employee with Andrew Black Ltd, died while using the wash bay to clean his truck at the firm’s Drem Airfield base in East Lothian, ahead of his next shift on December 31, 2021.

As he raised his truck’s tipper, it made contact with the power lines.

The company admitted a charge under Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

It was found the company failed to ensure there were suitable controls in place for work carried out near overhead power lines between November 15, 2021 and January 5, 2022.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Andrew Black Ltd had failed to put effective safety measures in place, which resulted in Mr Borton’s death.

It was also found the company had not risk-assessed the hazard of overhead power lines on site.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Where a person loses their life at work due to the actions of their employer, the criminal law should be used to hold their employer to account. That is why there are a range of criminal laws both health and safety legislation and corporate homicide legislation which can be used and we fully support enforcement of these laws to hold employers to account where necessary.

“This area of law is reserved under the Scotland Act. Attempts to legislate in this area in a previous Parliamentary session through a Members’ Bill failed due to concerns about competence. While the substantive law is reserved, the Scottish Government is willing to consider any specific proposals to improve the operation of the law if that can be done in a devolved area.”