Posted By Kevin Jones The Victorian (Australia) Government has just released a draft regulation that introduces the concept of Industrial Manslaughter. This will be empowered under the Crimes Act but will originate through an OHS prosecution. Part of the reason for this was to familiarise Magistrates with OHS prosecutions under a legal framework that was more familiar to them. There is a redefinition of company "officer" and manslaughter may result from an aggregation of actions by multiple officers. I would be interested in knowing the barriers elsewhere to the introduction of manslaughter in an OHS context. I believe that "corporate manslaughter" has been tried elsewhere.

Posted By Tim Davies Don't hold your breath on this one. The Law Commission Report 237 has been around for ages and the Labour election pledge was to bring in the recommended changes on coming into power - it hasn't happened and is likely not to happen within this current parliment due to a back log of other proposed legislation. That said, the deputy pm stated something on the lines that all orgs must have a director of safety, who will be made responsible, and that such a direction will happen within this current Government. And about time too.