Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I declare an interest as a serving police officer for more than 30 years; indeed, I served in the significant tactical front-line and strategic ranks in incidents of severe public disorder. Everything that was adduced to support the previous clause can equally be adduced to support this one. I was much taken with the noble Lord’s comment about reviewing the Bill to cover gross breaches in relation to inadequate equipment. I would support a provision to deal with such negligence. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, spoke very eloquently about military training. Very much the same arguments apply to the training of the police. It would be a mistake to prevent the police having access to training that would prepare them for violence on the streets, which has been rapidly increasing for some time. In the lifetime of most of the occupants of this Room, we have seen the policing of severe disorder move from the policing of the sort that we saw in Grosvenor Square in the 1960s, when the police simply linked arms and leant against the crowd, to firearms being discharged against the police and petrol bombs being used, which I have experienced. Of course we now face a whole range of theoretical possibilities, which I need not go into. I support the clause as it stands.