08 November 2002

Disappointment at Reports that Corporate Killing reforms absent from Queen's Speech

The Centre for Corporate Accountability is disappointed by Press Association reports that there will no mention of the enactment of a new offence of Corporate Killing in the Queens Speech next week.

David Bergman, the Director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, said today:

"The Labour Government committed itself to reform the law of manslaughter in October 1997. Since then, there have been over 2000 work-related deaths, as well as the Southall, Paddington and Potters Bar disasters.

The Government's failure to enact this new offence has not only meant that dozens, if not hundreds of companies, have in the meantime escaped criminal accountability but has also ensured a continuing failure on the part of the criminal justice system to deter companies from acting dangerously in the future .

At the last labour party conference, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary talked about putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, and stated that the Government considered it to be just as much a miscarriage of justice "when a guilty person walks free as it is when someone is wrongly convicted" .

Why does the Government not recognise that victims of corporate crime have for years watched guilty companies and directors "walk free" because of inadequacies in the law; and why does it continue to delay announce in the Queen’s speech a bill proposing a new offence of 'Corporate Killing'."

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1. The Centre for Corporate Accountability is an independent nonprofit advice, research and lobbying group at the forefront of seeking to ensure that health and safety law is properly enforced and that deaths and injuries resulting from corporate activities are subject to adequate criminal investigations, and, where appropriate, prosecution and effective sanctions. It's charitable activities are funded by Joseph Rowntrees Charitable Trust.
   
   
2. What the Press Association Reported on 8 Nov 2002
   
   CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER LAW REFORM STALLS AGAIN
   By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent, PA News
   The victims of disasters reacted with dismay today at news that long awaited reform of the corporate manslaughter laws has stalled again.
   
   Government sources privately admitted that measures to make company directors personally responsible for fatal accidents will not be in next week's Queen's Speech.
   
   The measures are now unlikely to become law before the end of 2004. Labour first promised to bring in the changes more than a decade ago, but it is believed that plans published two years ago have become bogged down after objections from big business.
   
   Pamela Dix of Disaster Action, an umbrella group for people affected by fatal accidents and tragedies, said: "The time has come to stop talking and take action.
   
   "We had felt a little more optimistic that it would be in the Queen's Speech this time. "It is a radical and disappointing departure from the direction we thought this Government was going in."
   
   A Home Office spokeswoman refused to confirm whether a new Corporate Killing Bill will be in Wednesday's speech, saying:
   
   "The Government has a long-standing commitment to legislation in this area when parliamentary time allows.
   
   "There is a tradition that we do not comment in advance on what is going to be in the Queen's Speech."
   
   Former Home Secretary Jack Straw mooted a new offence of corporate killing within days of the 1997 Southall train crash. Under present law, prosecutions for corporate manslaughter are doomed to failure, except in the case of one-man or very small companies - because the law requires proof that a director had "controlling" responsibility or was grossly negligent.
   
   Existing involuntary manslaughter laws have led to just three successful prosecutions since they were introduced more than 30 years ago.
   
   In total, 451 people have died over the last 15 years in eight major disasters, including the King's Cross station fire, the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster off Zeebrugge, the Marchioness riverboat tragedy, at Hillsborough football stadium and in the Clapham, Southall, Paddington and Potter's Bar rail crashes.
   
   The long-awaited new legislation had been expected to force companies to nominate a director to be personally responsible for health and safety, with a possible jail term if convicted of conduct "far below what could reasonably be expected".
   
   But there have been suggestions that this would be watered down, placing more emphasis on heavier fines for the company as a whole.
   
   The proposal to change the law has been backed by the Director of Public
   Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, who told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in 2000 that the existing law was "insufficient to deal with what is culpable conduct".
   
   He added: "I am entirely in favour of an offence, properly drafted, of corporate killing, which will enable criminal courts to bear down on negligent treatment of employees in the workforce."