Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I welcome the fact that the Secretary of State has moved the motion. As late as last night, Baroness Ashton, the Minister in the other place, said that the Bill was hanging in the balance and that there was"““little to be gained by extending the time available…simply to prolong the passage of the Bill between this House and the other place.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 17 July 2007; Vol. 694, c. 137.]" The tabling of the motion at the eleventh hour ensures that the Bill will not fall on Friday and that we will have more time to consider it. We are in unusual, if not uncharted, waters. It is exceptional for the other place to ask this House to think again by insisting for a fourth time. The fact that the other place has voted to include within the Bill’s remit the deaths of people in custody in police and prison cells no fewer than five times shows the strength of feeling. Indeed, hon. Members on both sides of the House have expressed their feelings about the matter. The Bill received its First Reading in this House a year ago. It would have been quite wrong to have allowed the Bill to fall when the power to extend the timetable lay in the Government’s hands. The Secretary of State was therefore right to move the motion. We will debate the substantive issue shortly, but the Government have already conceded the principle that deaths in custody should be covered by the Bill. At the moment, that will happen by order. We have been discussing when that should happen. There is no point in extending the time for debate if the Government are unwilling to move on the question of when that should happen, or to tell the House more about their concerns about the immediate introduction of such a provision. We will now have time to reflect on those issues. However, given that it is clear that the Government again intend to reject the Lords amendments that propose an 18-month time frame, I hope that they will make a constructive proposal for a reasonable time frame. If they do not do so, I hope that the other place will be robust in insisting that its proposal is adhered to. We will listen with interest to what the Secretary of State says about that. However, I welcome the fact that he has conceded that further time is needed for reflection and possible compromise on this important issue.