Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

My Lords, this is an important Bill for which many people have waited a long time, and the reference to the Law Commission’s 1996 report is very relevant. I agree with the noble Lords, Lord Rosser and Lord Brennan, in their approach to what should be done with the Bill. We must support it and get it on the statute book. There are four matters that I wish to be dealt with in detail in Committee and on Report. The first is secondary criminal liability, which I mentioned in my intervention during the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lyell. That doctrine includes aiding and abetting in the commission of an offence and conspiracy in criminal and civil law. We must look again at secondary criminal liability, which applies right across our criminal law. Clause 16 excludes secondary criminal liability; we shall obviously have to discuss that matter further. I agree very much with the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, that closer attention must be paid to penalties beyond the crude bludgeon of a fine, however large. Those penalties must be imaginatively drawn to promote a culture of safety at work, as a result of whose absence so many workers today suffer and, as we know from the dreadful incidents described, some are killed. Secondly, we must look at the public sector carefully in order to achieve a balance between public functions and commercial or similar liabilities. I agree very much with those who have raised the question of deaths in custody, which must form a part of our considerations in Committee and on Report. There is a question in Clause 1 on how far the limiting phrases of ““substantial”” effect and ““senior management”” are a pressure to move the law back to what the Bill is supposed to be replacing. We must look very carefully at such phrases in Clause 1 to see what the Bill in practice would do in regard to the real corporate structures that surround us with such multinational and very complex management organisations. Thirdly, it is unfortunate that the Bill is to be referred to a Grand Committee, which is used a great deal now by the Executive, through the usual channels. Its effect is to postpone decisions until Report or sometimes even Third Reading. We have seen it again and again, and it would be good if noble Lords and I reread the guidance in the Companion. I warmly congratulate the Government on bringing forward this framework. It can be improved, but it must reach the statute book in its central design. I welcome the Bill and hope that it will become law very soon.