Lords push to widen corporate killing bill

News | HSW
01.03.2007

The government has its work cut out to push through the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill without changes, following an amendment passed in the House of Lords extending the Bill's reach to cover the police and prison services. The move  may find support among MPs when the Bill returns to the House of Commons for its next stage.

On 5 February, the lords voted by 223 to 127 to amend the Bill to make senior police officers and prison governors liable for negligent deaths in custody. Cross-bench peer and former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham argued that extending the Bill's scope could promote more careful treatment of  people held in police cells and prisons. There have been 10 verdicts of unlawful killing of people in custody since 1990.

The government had managed to quash an attempt to move a similar change in the Bill's last Commons reading. It now faces some negotiation behind the scenes with Labour MPs such as former Home Office minister John Denham, who will fight to retain the amendment in the coming attempt to produce the agreed text acceptable to both houses before the Bill can gain Royal Assent.