Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

My Lords, I am very glad indeed that we now have this Bill before the House. I should declare an interest: I am a member of Amicus and I was, for a number of years, assistant general-secretary of ASTMS, which was one of the founding unions of Amicus. The Minister will of course be aware that the trade union movement has been seeking such legislation for a very long time. Concern over the inadequacy of the current law to deal with organisations whose failings lead to death or injury has been highlighted by a number of high-profile disasters, including the King’s Cross fire, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, the Southall and Hatfield rail crashes and many other incidents. I particularly remember the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster because members of my union were involved in it. I remember at that time that, with the assistance of my noble friend Lord Wedderburn of Charlton, I introduced a Private Member’s Bill into this House with the aim of protecting the jobs of whistleblowers who detected unsafe working conditions on oil rigs and were too intimidated by the prospect of job loss to report on them. We managed to get agreement to that Bill and eventually it became law. But that only dealt with one aspect. Although there have been successful prosecutions for manslaughter against companies, they have, as has already been said, all involved small companies in which the directing mind has been easy to identify. It has been virtually impossible to satisfy the current legal criteria with large companies. The present Bill is therefore welcomed by trade unions but, nevertheless, they seek what they regard as necessary improvements in the Bill in order to make it more effective. An amendment may therefore be sought to introduce a new clause entitled ““Offence by senior manager””. That would mean that a director or senior manager could be found guilty of an offence if they were found to be responsible for the corporate manslaughter. Unless there are individual sanctions against directors or senior managers, there is little chance of this Bill changing the health and safety behaviour of directors and improving the management of health and safety at work. There is also a case for specific health and safety duties to be placed on directors and senior managers. This may well require an addition to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. It has always seemed strange to me—and to others who have spoken in this debate—that severe penalties can be imposed on directors for financial malpractice but that there is no specific duty of care for the health, welfare and safety of the company’s workforce. I hope that during discussion of this Bill steps can be taken to deal with that anomaly. There is also a need to include a provision in regard to a director or senior manager who is found guilty of aiding or abetting the commission of an offence of corporate manslaughter. That should carry a prison sentence, as indeed should the original offence. The unions want to see effective ““naming and shaming”” not just in the accounts or at Companies House. There should be disqualification of directors who are responsible for deaths. Further, it is proposed that effective orders should be made by the court that has heard the evidence to deal with the corporate failings that led to the offence. Named persons should be required to improve the failings that led to the offence. There should be a report back to the court on the steps taken, with any person referred to in any order as being responsible for the specified steps being guilty of contempt if those specified steps have not been taken. There may also be a case for the inclusion of a clause dealing with the public interest, perhaps empowering the court to make public details of the offence, the sentence imposed and the steps to be taken to prevent a recurrence. It will be seen from these suggestions that, while the Bill is broadly welcomed by those with a major interest in the welfare of workforces, the unions are anxious to ensure that the legislation has sufficient teeth to make it effective. It may very well be that the Government themselves have some tightening up in mind. My information is that Ministers have been very willing to discuss these matters. I await with interest the Minister's response before deciding whether to frame some amendments in line with the suggestions that have been made in this debate. Again, I emphasise that we welcome the Bill and we want to see it on the statute book. We want to ensure that it is as effective as we can possibly make it. We have waited very long for it and we therefore want to make it as effective as it possibly can be. I welcome it and thank the Minister for the way in which she introduced it. We look forward to having it on the statute book.