May I endorse everything that the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) has said? The test of the Bill will be whether families feel that justice has been done. I had a constituent, Simon Jones, who was a student at Sussex university. To augment his grant, he worked at Shoreham docks. On his first day, tragically he was put in a place of work in the bowels of a ship, where no one could see what was happening. In effect, he was decapitated. I sat with his family in the public gallery at the Bailey when the prosecution was brought, but no one was ever convicted, so the family got no closure.
I agree with the hon. Member for Hendon that it is perverse that we will go behind the corporate veil on health and safety offences, yet that no individual in any circumstances, however gross, will be liable for prosecution for corporate manslaughter. The test for the Bill—I hope that it will not be 20 years before the House considers the matter again—will be whether families in our constituencies whose loved ones have been killed at work through negligence for which people are culpable feel that the Bill is capable of providing that justice will be done.
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Tony Baldry
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 16 May 2007.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill.
About this proceeding contribution
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2006-07Chamber / Committee
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