Last minute compromise on corporate manslaughter law

The House of Lords has ended a lengthy row with the Commons when it agreed to a Government compromise over peers' calls for deaths in custody to be covered by the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide law.

The move followed a pledge last week in the Commons by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, to act over the issue which has resulted in five Government defeats and several bouts of so-called Parliamentary "ping pong" between the two Houses.

With only days to go before the Westminster summer recess, there were ministerial warnings that the fate of the Bill was "hanging in the balance", unless agreement could be reached on the issue. Government amendments involve an acceptance of a duty owed to a person in custody, and giving power to extend the definition of custody.

Crossbencher and former Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham led a campaign to widen the legislation to include deaths in custody, which won the support of peers on all sides of the House.

Today he accepted the assurances of Leader of the House Baroness Ashton of Upholland that the Government aimed to meet an "ambitious timetable of three years", to extend the powers to cover custodial deaths. The Bill now only awaits Royal Assent.

'Powerful deterrent'

Outside the House, Justice Minister Maria Eagle said: "The Corporate Manslaughter Bill is a ground-breaking piece of legislation. This is about ensuring justice for victims of corporate failures. For too long it has been virtually impossible to prosecute large companies for management failures leading to deaths.

"Today's Act changes this, for the first time companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter on the basis of gross corporate failures in health and safety. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will make it easier to prosecute companies who fail to protect people.

"We are sending out a very powerful deterrent message to those organisations which do not take their health and safety responsibilities seriously."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "We are pleased that a sensible decision has been taken and the Bill will now become law.

"Even though unions wanted the Bill to make individual directors personally liable for safety breaches and penalties against employers committing safety crimes to be tougher, we hope it will mean the start of a change in the safety culture at the top of the UK's companies and organisations."

'Lost opportunity'

Mr Barber added: "The catalogue of avoidable workplace deaths in recent years has highlighted in stark terms the need for a change of attitude over safety in UK boardrooms.

"To make a real difference, we now need to ensure that this law is accompanied by a new legal health and safety duty on directors and a requirement on companies to report annually on their workplace safety culture."

David Bergman, director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, which has campaigned tirelessly for the introduction of the new law for many years, said: "No large or medium sized organisation has ever been convicted of corporate manslaughter - despite the hundreds of work-related deaths each year.

"We hope that this Bill we bring an end to the immunity that large and medium sized companies have had over the years. Whilst the Bill is not everything that we wanted - and in some senses is a lost opportunity for more significant reform - we do think it will increase chances of greater justice and accountability for work-related deaths."