Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

My Lords, first, I declare my involvement over the years in the boardrooms of a number of public and private sector companies and as a Minister at the Ministry of Defence, to which I shall refer a little later. As my noble friend Lord Cotter made clear in his opening speech, we support the broad thrust and aims of the Bill and believe that the new offence of corporate manslaughter marks a significant step forward. However, it has been a long time coming. I think that it was promised or hinted at in Labour’s 1997 manifesto. In her introduction, the Minister talked about the present law as being too narrow and used what I thought was a rather elegant phrase about the Bill moving the area of negligence from ““who”” to ““how””. Several noble Lords, especially the noble Lord, Lord James, my friend and former adversary, the noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, the noble Lords, Lord Sawyer and Lord Rosser, and the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, have been concerned about the ““who”” aspect. I am sure that we will debate that in detail in Committee. I suggest that we should make it clear that, in a mature, developed and, I hope, fair society such as ours in the 21st century, an organisation, whether commercial or public, has a prime responsibility to its employees and others in its custody or care to protect them as far as is reasonably possible, and that, if it fails to do so in a grossly negligent way, a charge of corporate manslaughter will follow. As Jack Straw said about the Bill: "““The ultimate test of its success will not be the number of convictions that follow it, but whether it changes the behaviour of managers of businesses, resulting in far fewer deaths arising from the sort of major accidents that we have seen in the past””.—[Official Report, Commons, 20/7/06; col. 465.]" That was the point made by the noble Lord, Lord James. I hope that he will understand if I do not attempt to follow him on his international corporate journey—I do not have time to do that. As the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, said in his very effective contribution, when the Bill is enacted, we expect a wholly different corporate culture in the area of health and safety. I wholeheartedly agree with that. Although we support the Bill’s main aims, we have serious reservations about many aspects of it. It is rather as if the Government giveth with one hand and individual departments taketh away with the other, particularly in the area of Crown immunity. It is very sad that the Government, which surely should be taking a lead in the departments and activities that they control and setting an example, are actively seeking some very unsatisfactory immunities. We are not happy with the immunities granted to the Ministry of Defence or to the police. Taking the form of the MoD, we accept that it is reasonable for there to be immunities in wartime and for Special Forces’ activities, and perhaps for anti-terrorism activities, but surely activities such as training recruits—obviously Deepcut comes to mind—should be covered by the Bill. I go further: in military operations such as Afghanistan and Iraq, should the MoD not be held to account for failures to provide adequate body armour for those whose lives are at risk? I support wholeheartedly the comments of my noble friend Lord Tyler. I had the great privilege of being a junior Defence Minister in the 1980s, and I remember trying manfully to get proper protective clothing for MoD police guarding the cruise missile sites in freezing weather. At that time, I calculated that we were spending £1 million an hour, every hour, on equipment for our forces. The MoD has always had a huge budget—it is really just a question of priorities and programmes—but, sadly, it has form in this area. Similarly, an individual taken into police custody is wholly dependent on the approach and activities of the force while they are held in captivity. It is a period of complete helplessness for the individual. The Independent Police Complaints Commission annual report of 2005-06, which has just come to hand, reports 28 deaths in police custody in 2005-06—a welcome reduction on the 36 deaths in the previous year. Surely if there is considered to have been gross police negligence in certain cases, a charge under the Bill would have been quite appropriate. Many Members with vast experience—particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, with her experience of monitoring Wormwood Scrubs, the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, and particularly the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, with his very distinguished background in this area—have spoken about this aspect. The proposed immunity is challenged by a whole range of organisations from Liberty to the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. The Government will find it very difficult to justify and defend this custodial immunity as the Bill progresses. Indeed, I suggest that a vote against this immunity proposal by those participating in the debate today would have been near unanimous. To return to the main thrust of the Bill, the reality is that the UK has failed to provide universal legal protection for the right to life. The offence of corporate manslaughter developed by the courts has been ineffective, and the public have become disillusioned by and outraged at the lack of successful prosecutions and the paucity of fines. The noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, and my noble friend Lord Cotter referred to this in their contributions. Of the 34 work-related manslaughter cases brought since 1992, only seven prosecutions have succeeded, all against very small companies or traders. On the fines themselves, the steelmaker Corus was reported only last weekend as having been fined only £1.3 million under health and safety legislation over the deaths of two employees. With Corus beingthe subject of a takeover bid, valued at around£4.8 billion, a fine at £1.3 million is unlikely to have unduly exercised management or shareholders. Thus, the concept of unlimited fines, as set out in the Bill, is welcome. My noble friend Lord Mar and Kellie talked about penalties other than cash, which no doubt will be examined in Committee. He referred also to the case of the eight year-old boy who was tragically killed by a falling tree at Dunham Park, which is fairly close to my home in the north. Clearly, we need to protect trees, but I suggest that young lives are even more important and that safety should be paramount. I must say that I am delighted that the noble Earl avoided his personal falling tree even though he is a Whip. Clearly, in Committee, we need and will have a full debate, as was requested specifically by the noble Lord, Lord Henley. In conclusion, we need this Bill, but we need it improved.