Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

Does the Minister agree with me that this amendment is extremely valuable in one sense, although I agree very largely with the substance of what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lyell, said? It is extremely useful in the sense that it directs attention to an issue which has been before the Committee before, that a duty of care may arise not only from the law of tort—as I am in the presence of distinguished Scottish lawyers, I should also perhaps say reparation; I hope that is right—but also from other sources. Trustee duties and trustee-like duties—which is the history of directors and various other persons, with which I shall not bore the Committee—arise largely from equity. It is one of the curiosities of our law that although law and equity are now administered together by the judges in the same court at the same time, nevertheless the obligations that flow from an equitable base have never been thoroughly put together with those that derive from the common law. There is a duty of care owed by a trustee, but personally I do not think that they need be too worried by the Bill as it stands, even if the amendments were moved that would admit aiding and abetting. But of course there are a lot of sources for duties of care apart from the law of tort. If any of those duties were relevant, it would be very curious if they were excluded by the Bill when someone is operating in a normal commercial way and owes duties from a number of historical sources. It is a historical oddity to regard the law of negligence in a layman’s sense as derived only from the English common law or even the Scottish common law of tort or reparation. I have no doubt that the noble Lord will want to think about that. It is of great value that this amendment sends our minds to that general issue in the Bill, which I am sure we will want to look at again on Report.