132. Memorandum submitted by Hampshire
County Council
The Council welcomes the clarification that
the new offence will not apply to decisions of public policy where
those decisions involve weighting factors of competing public
interests dictated by financial, economic, social or political
factors.
We note that individuals could still face prosecution
for the "old" common law offence, or for a breach of
the Health and Safety at Work Act, but we support the idea that
"it would not be appropriate for an offence that deliberately
stressed the liability of the corporation itself to involve punitive
sanctions for individuals".
We think it right that the ordinary rules of
causation should apply and that there must be a demonstrable chain
of events leading from the failure to the death, which has not
been broken by some intervening act.
In terms of sanction, we think it right that
a Crown body should be subject to the same sanction as other organisations
and that the commitment to this new Bill should be demonstrated
by retaining the same sanction for Crown bodies.
We think it right that there should be no change
to the current responsibilities for the police to investigate
and the CPS to prosecute. We welcome the need for individuals
to obtain the consent of the DPP before bringing a private prosecution.
17 June 2005
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