Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I suppose that I ought to say that I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, for his comments, but there seemed to me to be some confusion in his remarks. Somewhere roughly in the middle of his speech he seemed rather to lose his thread. I shall have to look very carefully at what he had to say in dealing with my amendments. Having said that, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for his comments. I shall look very carefully at what he had to say about prison officers and their role, particularly when they are escorting offenders to and from court, and the different ways in which they are treated according to whether they are prison officers or private sector staff. I agree wholeheartedly with what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Boyd of Duncansby, said about the change in the terrorism threat. I was reminded of this only yesterday. When I first came to this House, when the late Lord Callaghan was Prime Minister, I remember seeing him, accompanied by someone whom I presumed was a civil servant—he may have been a detective—walking from No. 10 to the Houses of Parliament. When I saw streaming along the Mall yesterday three police motorcycles and what I took to be the Prime Minister’s car, followed by three further cars, I realised just how much things had changed over a relatively short time. We always have to bear that in mind when we consider legislation of this sort. The same is obviously true of what the noble Lord, Lord Dear, had to say about changes in civil disorder. I can just about remember the events in Grosvenor Square in 1968, although I was too young to be involved. I do not know whether the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, was there. If he was not, I am sure that he was there in spirit.