Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I am glad that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lyell, has introduced the subject of money. I was disappointed in the Minister’s reply, particularly because he started by mentioning resources, as if hurling money at this is the solution. It is not. The solution is all about management. If the Minister had read every report—annual or whatever—that I wrote, he would have seen that the issue came down to management every time. Poor management, poor oversight of management and failure to oversee management are the cause of ills in the Prison Service. I am extremely disappointed that, despite the Minister’s experience in the Home Office and a briefing from the prisons inspectorate, that point does not seem to have gone home. I am not a lawyer but I want to repeat a paragraph that the Prison Reform Trust has put to us about the law on this matter. It states: "““A corporate failure, which results in the death of a prisoner, is by definition a failure of duty of care of colossal proportions, ending the life of a citizen held in an almost powerless situation. This is recognised in international law and guidance. In the case of Keenan v UK, judgment 3/4/2001, the European Court of Human Rights stated that ‘in the context of prisoners … persons in custody are in a vulnerable position and … the authorities are under a duty to protect them’. In the case of Barbato v Uruguay, 1983, the UN Human Rights Committee considering a death in custody, was of the view that a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was ‘under an obligation to take effective steps … to bring to justice any persons found to be responsible for his death’””." This is by no means a new situation, which is why I am extremely disappointed that the chance of putting it right has not been taken. On the subject of human rights, I should say that, when we were looking at the implications of incorporating the European convention into British law, I asked a lawyer to compare the conditions with prison rules. The lawyer said that there was absolutely nothing in prison rules that was not in line with the European convention. Therefore, a breach of prison rules is also a breach of human rights. The worry about management breaching its own rules, quite apart from anything else, makes the case even more strongly than before.