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Corporate Manslaughter Bill - Still 'Ping Ponging'!

Date of article:  21/06/2007

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The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill 2006-07 is said to still be 'ping-ponging' between the House of Lords and the House of Commons as the debate continues over whether the new offence will apply to deaths in state custody.

Earlier in the year, at the second reading of the bill, the Lords passed an amendment that would have allowed the offence to apply to deaths in custody.

This amendment was rejected at the Commons on the 16th May. It proposed that deaths in custody would not be covered in the Bill but that the secretary of state would be given power to amend the Bill anytime in the future, which would allow the offence of corporate manslaughter to apply to deaths in custody.

When the Bill passed to the Lords for its agreement on this new amendment, the lords dismissed the compromise and reinserted its old amendment. This means once again the Bill is back with the House of Commons.

The Bill will not be passed until both Houses agree on the amendment. If an agreement is not reached by 17 July, the end of Parliament, the Bill will have to be scrapped.

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