Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I am new to the post at the Ministry of Justice, so I have not had the pleasure of taking part in the Committee stage of the Bill, nor have I had the opportunity to see another place in action. I am assured, however, that the amendments brought forward following consideration in another place are now very much welcomed by the Government. I am pleased to seek the House’s support for the amendments brought forward in another place, because the Government have listened to the concerns expressed there. I particularly thank the noble Lord Hunt and the noble Lord Razzall for their support for the amendments. The amendments deal with what sort of organisation can be prosecuted for the new offence, and strengthen the Bill by extending the new offence to certain types of unincorporated body. There has been a wide measure of support for extending the offence beyond the circumstances of an incorporated body, and I pay tribute to those who pressed the Government on the issue, including the Home Affairs and the Work and Pensions Committees in their scrutiny report on the draft Bill. I also pay tribute to the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Sutcliffe), for his work in Committee and in steering the Bill through not just two Houses of Parliament but two Departments—from the Home Office to the Ministry of Justice. It will be of little comfort to a bereaved family to learn that the most serious criminal penalty for an involuntary killing is not available because the organisation involved lacks a separate legal identity, and the amendments—which we are happy to accept—seek to remedy that. The new offence of corporate manslaughter is based on the concept of management failure in the organisation, and is not dependent on the guilt of a particular individual. In the case of companies and other corporate bodies, liability under the new offence can be attributed to the corporate legal entity itself. That is not possible in an unincorporated body, which exists as a group of members or individuals and has no separate legal personality. There is a significant difference between the two types of organisation. The amendments respond positively to those problems, and extend the offence to partnerships, trade unions and employers’ organisations. I acknowledge the full support of the Conservatives in another place. I think it right for us to adopt a cautious approach. Unincorporated bodies are not currently liable for prosecution for manslaughter caused by gross negligence. They include a wide range of smaller and more informal groups, including many in the voluntary and charitable sectors. We do not want to give rise to unwarranted risk aversion in such organisations by exposing them to prosecution for serious offences for the first time, but I think we need to take some action in response to what has been done in the other place. The amendments seek to strike a balance by extending the offence in the first instance to a defined range of unincorporated bodies including partnerships and bodies with a quasi-corporate status under statute, namely trade unions and employers’ organisations. We have considered monitoring the position to determine whether we should include further organisations. Lords amendment No. 32 provides a power to extend the offence to further categories of organisation through secondary legislation should my noble Friend the Secretary of State, my fellow Ministers and I wish to do so in the future. Other amendments in the group are consequential on the extension of the offence to unincorporated bodies, but I draw particular attention to Lords amendment No. 28, which ensures that there is no loophole in the offence because partnerships do not themselves owe a duty of care. Lords amendment No. 35 adds the National School of Government to the list in schedule 1. The school became a non-ministerial Government Department in January 2007, and needs to be added to the schedule to bring it into line with the other bodies in the list. I think that hon. Members on both sides of the House should welcome the Lords amendments.