The Institute of Directors has joined with the Health and Safety Commission to advise directors and boards in how to implement the present health and safety, but a leading construction union has spoken out, calling the present laws "a complete failure."

The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) has announced a campaign for a rethink on the current legislation on corporate manslaughter,

UCATT's report reveals that in a six-year period from 1998 to 2004, Health and Safety Executive prosecutions in construction deaths plummeted from 42 per cent to just 11 per cent. The conviction rates are far below the HSE's own research, which estimated that in 70 per cent of construction workers deaths management failures caused or contributed to the deaths.

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The joint HSE commissioned draft report by the Institute of Directors outlines ways for industry leaders to protect themselves from prosecution and how to implement the present laws, but UCATT feels the legislation needs to be looked at again.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: "The failure of the HSE to prosecute companies who kill their workers is profoundly shocking. The HSE are clearly failing to follow their own rules and guidelines on prosecutions. Serious questions must be asked about why the HSE is so spectacularly failing to prosecute more companies.

"The Government's failure to introduce statutory legal duties forcing directors to take responsibility for their companies' health and safety policies is literally costing workers their lives."

(DW/JM)