Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

This exemption, as I understand it—perhaps the Minister will confirm this—applies where law enforcement operations are, "““dealing with terrorism, civil unrest or serious public disorder””," and not otherwise, so ordinary policing operations are not caught by it. I have a worry about this. Five years ago, we did not anticipate the terrorist threat that we now face in this country. Certainly I believe from everything that I learnt from my time as Lord Advocate that it is extremely serious in this country. It is also clear that there are those who will threaten the country with chemical, biological or radioactive material. We may have to respond very quickly to these threats as they develop. I am concerned that if we were to include, for example, adequate training and the provision of equipment, training that is absolutely necessary for protecting the civil population might not happen because, for example, there is no adequate equipment or people will think that there is no adequate equipment. The Bill is rightly creating a society averse to the risk of death, but I am concerned that at some point we will face in this country unforeseen threats which we must respond to very quickly, and one would not want the preparations or the training for these threats to go by the board simply because we are waiting until all the equipment and training are in place.