UK Parliament / Open data

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord but I should be even more grateful if he could clarify one or two points. He gave the example of the Royal Mint having acted in relation to a heavy machine on the hook of a crane. Rightly, he did not decide whether that gave rise to corporate manslaughter or whether it would have done in the future, but at least it got sufficiently close to illustrate the argument. Did I understand the noble and learned Lord to say that, today, the Royal Mint would be caught under Clause 2(1)(b) as the occupier of premises? If I understood that correctly, in those circumstances how does Clause 2(1)(b) relate to Clause 2(1)(c)(ii), which concerns, "““the carrying on by the organisation of any construction””—" let us ignore the word ““construction””— "““or maintenance operations””?" The case given seemed to involve a very serious failure of maintenance. If it was reasonable to catch the Royal Mint—one of the bodies listed in Schedule 1—for corporate manslaughter in those circumstances, and if it falls under Clause 2(1)(c), why should not all public authority operations which fall under paragraph (c) be similarly caught? That is what we are asking for, and it seems entirely reasonable. I look forward to hearing what the noble and learned Lord says.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

688 c224GC 

Session

2006-07

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords Grand Committee
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