MANSLAUGHTER CONCESSION

An amendment to the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Bill has been tabled by the government which will allow the new offence to apply to deaths in prison and police custody. The climb-down came after the House of Lords refused to pass the Bill unless it applied to such deaths. David Bergman, director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, says: “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.”