Equity fines for corporate accountability

A politician suggests judges should tie fines for death and injury to company's share prices to increase corporate accountability, a source says.

Bill Wilson, a member of the Scottish National Party, made the proposals, the Herald reports.

Mr Wilson claims judges rarely fine large amounts for accidents in the workplace out of concern this will be passed on to employees through redundancies.

"They might possibly be punishing the very employees who were the innocent victims of the companies' offences in the first place," he explains to the newspaper.

He says that the fine for a death is less than £12,000 in half of cases.

Mr Wilson is launching a consultation for the issue that he hopes will result in equity fines to force a share issue, increasing corporate accountability.

This, he claims, will punish those profiting from a breach with a minimum risk of this being passed on to vulnerable employees.

Earlier this week, Sharaz Butt was jailed for the manslaughter of one of his employees.

His company, Alcon Construction, was given a nominal fine of £10 for the health and safety breaches that contributed to the death.