UK Parliament / Open data

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I do not have the precise figures, but that ties in with my recollection. We are not talking about one or two such cases a decade. There is a consistent pattern of suicide in prison, for which no blame can attach to anybody. [Interruption.] There is no point in the Secretary of State huffing and puffing; he should look carefully at the figures. The key issue is that there is a consistent pattern of instances of suicides in prison that were deemed to have been preventable. However, just because something may have been preventable does not necessarily mean that it should lead to a corporate manslaughter charge. What I am saying is that there can be no philosophical or rational justification for exempting Government Departments from the possibility of culpability in this field, particularly in view of what custody actually is.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

454 c99 

Session

2006-07

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber
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