Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I should express my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Henley, for that introduction because it provides us quite properly with an opportunity to explain the thinking behind the amendments which, as he has said, were moved in another place but on which there was little debate. This goes to the heart of describing types of public authority which are included in the drafting of the exemption in Clause 5(1) of public authorities facing violence when engaged in operations for dealing with terrorism, serious public disorder and civil unrest. No doubt the noble Lord will be able to tell me whether his understanding is the same as mine. Concern was expressed that the term ““public authority”” could be interpreted too widely to include authorities which do not as part of their core business engage in policing and law enforcement activities. In particular there was concern about whether organisations involved only indirectly in dealing with terrorism or other such circumstances could also benefit from the exemption. In the light of that we undertook to look at the exemption one more time. Part of the reassurance on this point is that the public authority in question must be carrying out operations to deal with terrorism, civil unrest or serious disorder. This in itself restricts the organisations to which the exemption applies. However, having considered the clause again, we were of the view that without amendment it could apply to a public authority whose functions did not include policing or law enforcement activities. Potentially, this could be wider than we had intended, theoretically applying it to an organisation involved in other aspects of such circumstances. We were not keen to list the public authorities to which this exemption should apply as there is always a risk with a list that something is left off, but we decided that the best way to restrict this exemption is to ensure both that the operations in question involve policing or law enforcement activities and that the authority must be one which has the functions of a police force or functions similar to those as defined in Clause 5(4). Our amendments tabled on Report in another place achieved that objective. I hope that that helps the noble Lord in his comprehension of the matter.