Abstract/Summary

The chapter sets out the two key means through which the criminal law imposes liability in cases of work-related safety violations – health and safety offences under the HSWA 1974, and the corporate manslaughter offence under the CMCHA 2007. In each case, the doctrinal and empirical factors which establish the ‘need’ for these offences are sketched, along with the broader political, social and normative rationales that led to their introduction. The chapter sets out the specific difficulties that each of these models of criminalisation has encountered in practice, showing how these difficulties relate to the notion of context-dependency in definition and application, and to the desire to achieve policy-oriented ends via criminalisation. The chapter draws on regulatory theory and analysis to demonstrate the contribution that criminalisation makes to the regulation of workplace safety. It argues that context-dependency is both a necessary requirement and a limiting factor in terms of impact.