To be or not to be

Today (22 May) the House of Lords will vote on whether or not they wish to reinstate their amendments to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill, which were overturned by the Commons last week.

According to Andrew Stokes, partner, Beachcroft LLP, the one remaining issue of contention is whether deaths in custody should be included within the Bill’s remit. In February, by a majority of almost 100, the Lords added amendments to the Bill at its report stage, to include a relevant duty of care in respect of deaths in custody.

“There has been little in the way of compromise to date on this issue,” says Stokes. “Having threatened to stand his ground totally, even at the risk of potentially having the Bill knocked out completely, John Reid did ultimately allow Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe to bring forward an amendment in the Commons last week which would empower the Secretary of State to propose and implement secondary legislation to amend the Act to add a duty of care in relation to deaths in custody, subject to relevant exemptions, with the agreement of both the Commons and the Lords.

“Should Lords vote to reinstate their own amendments tomorrow, the Bill will return to the Commons, where the Government's majority appears to be comfortable and secure and the Lords’ amendments seem certain to be knocked out again. This ‘ping pong’ process will not last indefinitely. Assuming peers do reject the Government's amendments tomorrow and restore their own, and the Commons knocks them out again, the Bill could be killed off unless the Lords respond by proposing a compromise that is acceptable to ministers.” Stokes believes that if a compromise can be reached, the Bill could well become law by the autumn.

The fear that the Bill could disappear entirely has prompted a reversal in strategy from the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) which has been lobbying for the legislation since it was first promised 10 years ago. Although initially the CCA supported the Lords’ amendments, David Bergman, CCA executive director said that the latest House of Commons’ amendment is “a potentially important concession by the Government” and he urged members of the Lords to support it.

”This new Bill may not be all that we had hoped, and in many ways remains a missed opportunity - but we do believe that this Bill will deliver increased justice and accountability when deaths result from gross failures in large and medium sized organisations.”