Corporate killer must not evade punishment,
MSP demands
Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland
region, today lodged a Parliamentary Motion congratulating the
authors of the recently released independent report on the ICL/Stockline
disaster in Glasgow. The Motion also called for the Scottish Government
to adopt legislation to ensure that those responsible for industrial
accidents and other serious health and safety offences be effectively
punished.
The report referred to in Dr Wilson’s
Motion, dated 31 August 2007 and titled The ICL/Stockline Disaster:
An Independent Report on Working Conditions Prior to the Explosion,
catalogues the negligence and mismanagement that lead to the explosion
in the ICL/Stockline plastics factory on May 11, 2004, in which
40 people were injured and nine killed.
Dr Wilson said the report had made a number
of excellent points and that he had already supported a Parliamentary
Motion calling for a review of the way the Scottish court system
handled industrial accident-related cases. His aim in lodging
the new motion today, however, was to draw particular attention
to the equity fines system developed by lawyers in the USA mentioned
in the report. He explained, “Simply fining a company whose
negligence has resulted in the deaths and injury of employees,
is not good enough. As the report says, the cost of fines may
even be passed on to workers! On the other hand, the equity fines
system, developed by lawyers in the USA, would appear to effectively
target guilty parties.”
Dr Wilson went on to outline what such an
equity fines system would entail: “Courts would order offending
companies to issue a quota of new shares. These would then be
administered by a state-controlled compensation fund. This, according
to the report, would punish those that benefit the most from corporate
offending (owners and shareholders), greatly improving corporate
criminal accountability and avoiding the redistribution of corporate
punishments to the most vulnerable.”
Dr Wilson concluded his remarks by saying,
“I very much hope the Scottish Government will act on this
and other recommendations made in the report. There is an argument
for the deregulation of business, but this should not be at the
cost of human lives. Lessons must be learnt from the suffering
of the victims of the ICL/Stockline disaster and their families.
No one should experience such horror again.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1. Full text of motion
Date of Lodging: 4 September 2007
Short Title: ICL/Stockline Disaster Report:
Equity Fines
S3M-00410 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland)
(SNP): That the Parliament congratulates the authors of the recently
published document entitled The ICL/Stockline Disaster: An Independent
Report on Working Conditions Prior to the Explosion; notes, in
particular, the mention of the equity fines system developed by
lawyers in the United States of America, a system that punishes
those who benefit the most from corporate offending, owners and
shareholders, and avoids the redistribution of corporate punishments
to the most vulnerable groups, such as employees, and calls on
the Scottish Government to investigate the feasibility of incorporating
this and other aspects of the report into Scottish law.
2. Full text of earlier motion supported by
Dr Wilson
Short Title: Review of Court Procedure in
Relation to Industrial Accidents
S3M-352 Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green):
That the Parliament welcomes the imminent implementation of legislation
to create an offence of corporate manslaughter; recognises the
further pain and heartache inflicted on the families of men and
women killed or injured in industrial accidents through delays
in court proceedings, and calls on the Scottish Executive to review
the processes of the Scottish court system with the aim of removing
all impediments and restraints on the swift and efficient administration
of justice in relation to industrial accidents.
3. ICL/Stockline
Disaster report
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