Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I am trying to argue that there would be the opportunity to combine corporate manslaughter with existing health and safety legislation. My hon. Friend will know that it took a great deal of care and consideration to get the Bill into its present shape. I know that he and my hon. Friend the Member for Eccles, on behalf of trade union groups in the House, have been pushing the trade union agenda for individual liability. I fully understand that, but in my opening remarks on this set of amendments, I asked the House to have regard to the practicality of what we are trying to achieve. My point is that individual liability is catered for under existing legislation, so the Government are not persuaded that we need to move down the route of individual liability in relation to corporate manslaughter. The aim is to make sure that the legislation works and can create an arena for change, as my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Doran) said. I hope that it will be a deterrent, and it is important that we use it to make sure that companies change their cultures. I explained to the Committee that I wrote a letter to the then director-general of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones, asking him what a rogue employer was. It took a good few months to get a response, and I had to chivvy him, saying, ““I’ve not had a response to my letter.”” It is unusual for Ministers to have to chivvy people for not responding to their letters. He eventually responded, and he said that the definition of a rogue employer was someone who did not pay the national minimum wage. We have moved on from that point in the debate, and in the consultation that took place, the Bill was supported by people in the business community who know that there are rogue employers. As hon. Friends have said, all of us can identify such employers in our constituencies. We are trying to make sure that the culture changes, and that health and safety is a key element. We talk about corporate social responsibility, we look at what companies put in their marketing strategies, and we consider how they treat their employees and communities, but health and safety should be considered alongside those things.