Paves way for corporate manslaughter bill to become law

The government has tabled today a new amendment of the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Bill allowing the new offence to apply to deaths in prison and police custody.

This is a direct concession to the House of Lords that has refused to pass this bill unless it applied such deaths.

David Bergman, director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability said: "We are thrilled that finally the Government has agreed with the Lords and human rights organisations, including the Centre for Corporate Accountability, that the new corporate manslaughter and homicide offence should apply to deaths in custody. We have long campaigned that this new offence should apply as widely as possible and include not only conventional work-related deaths but also those deaths resulting from the serious failures on the part of state bodies."