Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s arguments stand at odds with our own experience? There have been a number of cases since 1998 where patients or patients’ families, or those supporting patients, have sued the NHS, in whichever guise it happens to be, in relation to the giving of treatment, the withdrawal of treatment or the refusal to give treatment to a particular patient. Clearly, behind those cases lies the question of Government resources—public resources—and their allocation by that particular part of the NHS. The court decides, on the basis of the evidence before it, whether this is an incursion into some part of public policy which the courts do not get involved in, or it decides, on the facts of the case before it, that it can make or withhold an order. Surely the principle is precisely the same in this case and the Minister is at odds with his own Government’s policy.