Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I said that the Government have not advanced a satisfactory justification and I do not think that any committee has done so either. I want to make quite clear at the outset that this secondary level of liability involves complex considerations. The burden of proof is not on me to show that there could be an aiding and abetting of what the Bill primarily imposes on organisations; namely, what used to be called corporate killing and is now corporate manslaughter. The amendment states that the ordinary rules should apply, and there is no good argument whereby they should not, either from Section 37 or anywhere else. If a senior executive or board of directors know that an enterprise is suffused with a culture of negligence, the breaches of duty might be on the part of particular members of senior management. That would bring about a conviction for corporate manslaughter. However, a case of abetting may clearly arise. I see no reason why that normal rule of law should not apply. Why on earth exclude the rule of law as it applies to every other citizen? There is a very heavy responsibility on those who wish to avoid the normal rule of law in respect of a criminal offence.