Employers need to assess risk for travelling employees

Employers that travel or who employ workers to travel need to prepare the relevant health and safety policies before the Corporate Manslaughter Act arrives, one legal expert has claimed.

UK law firm Maclay Murray & Spens said that there is no guidance for those companies from the government as to how the new legislation would apply to deaths involving business travellers.

However, David Leckie, a partner with the firm, said that employers need to carry out risk assessments for journeys to be undertaken by employers.

Speaking to Btnmag.com he said: "You must make risk assessments in writing of employee activities that might expose them to risk and you must revise them if circumstances change."

"For day-to-day travel within the UK, you can make a wide-ranging risk assessment, but if someone is driving from London to Inverness [in northern Scotland] in mid-winter, then you will need a special one," he continued.

According to the HSE, under the new corporate manslaughter legislation, which comes into force on April 6th, firms can be found guilty of manslaughter as a result of serious management failures.

Find out more about the Corporate Manslaughter