Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

moved Amendment No. 83: 83: Clause 9, page 8, line 15, at end insert— ““( ) An order under subsection (1) shall— (a) identify a person or persons within the organisation to be responsible for ensuring that steps are taken; and (b) require that there is a report back to the court with details of the steps taken.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall also speak to Amendment No. 88. I will leave Amendment No. 89 to my noble friend Lord Wedderburn. We desire to strengthen Clause 9. The court should require named persons to take the steps required to improve the systematic failings that led to the offence. A person who fails to take the steps that the court requires to prevent more death and injury should clearly understand that this would be in contempt of court; that is the requirement of Amendment No. 88. This is a part of our attempts through amendments to ensure that the failings that led to offences will not be repeated. There should be a report back to the court on the steps being taken. I hope that the Government will be prepared to accept these reasonable proposals, which we think are essential if the health and safety culture of organisations is to be significantly improved. This kind of step is likely to have public support as well, because whenever there is a disaster resulting in a death, it will be expected that steps are clearly seen to be taken to try to prevent a recurrence. Essentially, that is what we are trying to do in these amendments. I expect that, like me, many noble Lords will have received documents from the organisation said to be representing the families of people who have died as a result of accidents at work. It serves to remind us that far too many accidents take place nowadays that result in injury and even death. The paper is headed: "““Corporate killers do the crime. Grieving families do the time””." Of course we should not forget that grieving families suffer the problems behind this legislation. I beg to move.