Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I had not intended to contribute to this part of the debate, but I believe that our discussion has been extremely important and it has helped me to focus on what I think are the key issues. I listened particularly to the contribution of the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve), but there is one fundamental weakness in his argument, as we would not be here today unless the common law had failed. The whole point of the Bill and statute generally is to fill the gaps or remedy the defects of the common law. We need to reflect on the history of why we are here now and recall the disasters of the 1980s and 1990s—King’s Cross, the Herald of Free Enterprise, Bradford, Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield, Piper Alpha; I just scribbled down a few of the names. There was a common theme in every one of those cases: the failure to invest in health and safety, whether it be through technology, training, maintenance or whatever. The case I know best is the Piper Alpha disaster, in which 167 men were killed offshore. Anyone looking at the report of Lord Cullen would see that it recorded negligence on that platform on a grand scale. If that operation had been the responsibility of and carried out by a single individual, there would have been a prosecution. However, we face a situation in our corporate culture today that makes it easy for people to hide behind the cloak of the company in respect of financial decisions to cut maintenance expenditure or a refusal to invest in safety training or whatever. My support, enthusiasm and campaigning for the Bill is intended to get behind that cloak. I firmly believe, as I said earlier, that unless we have some form of personal liability, we will fail. To be honest, I do not really care whether it is done through imprisonment or through the companies register, as suggested earlier by my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham).