Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

Let me make my position clear. I believe that the Prison Service does its best in often difficult circumstances and, of course, it often has custody of people who are mentally unstable or who have personality disorders. I know from visiting prisons that that can be an extremely difficult matter. I fully acknowledge that many who commit suicide do so despite a lot of care having been provided to try to prevent that from happening. The two cases cited of people having been killed by fellow inmates are, mercifully, fairly exceptional events—although that does not make them less regrettable. However, there is at least some evidence that even within the provision possible in the prison system there are failures that lead to inmates’ suicides. Let me make the position clear to the Minister. The Minister has made the point that the test for corporate manslaughter is a high one. Let me read out again the test for establishing corporate manslaughter:"““if the way in which its activities are managed or organised—""(a) causes a person’s death, and""(b) amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.””" When the Prison Service or police officers have an individual in custody, they owe a duty of care to them, and that applies to any organisation that has custody of another human being, yet the Government have decided to craft a deliberate exemption to take a group of people to whom the state owes very particular duties entirely out of that system. In doing so, they have said that it is all right to do that, because if something goes wrong there is searching scrutiny and inquiry. I acknowledge that there may often be searching scrutiny and inquiry, but that gives rise to a question that the hon. Member for Hendon raised very well. In many industrial accident cases, the Health and Safety Executive goes to great lengths to prepare a voluminous and detailed report, but that does not in itself mean that prosecution of the organisation in question should not take place as well. At the end of the day, the Minister and I differ on this point. If we are to have a corporate manslaughter offence, I cannot think of a good reason why the Prison Service, the police or any other organisation that detains people in lawful custody should be exempt from its provisions.