APPENDIX 3: CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER AND
CORPORATE HOMICIDE BILL
Supplementary Memorandum by the Home Office
1. This memorandum draws the Committee's attention
to a delegated power that is included in an amendment which the
Government has tabled to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate
Homicide Bill.
New clause to be inserted before clause 18: Power
to extend clause 1 to other organisations
Power conferred on: Secretary of State
Power exercisable by: Order made by statutory
instrument
Parliamentary procedure: Affirmative resolution
2. Clause 1 of the Bill provides that the offence
of corporate manslaughter or corporate homicide can be committed
by corporations, Government departments and other listed bodies,
and by police forces. An amendment tabled by the Government seeks
to add to that list partnerships, trade unions and employers'
associations that are (in each case) employers. A separate Government
amendment (see Annex) seeks to insert a new clause before clause
18, containing a power for the Secretary of State by order to
extend further the categories of organisation which can commit
the offence. An order under this power could also make any amendment
to the Act that was incidental or supplemental to, or consequential
on, such an extension of the categories.
3. By virtue of clause 19(4), the order could make
different provision for different cases, and make transitional
or saving provision.
4. The purpose of including this power is to allow
the Government, with Parliamentary approval, to make new categories
of organisation capable of committing the offence of corporate
manslaughter if it considers that this is appropriate to meet
a gap in the law. The Government currently considers that there
is a case to extend the offence to some partnerships, trade unions
and employers' associations, as these bodies, though unincorporated,
are relatively easily identifiable and have a clear corporate
identity. Moreover, these organisations can be sizeable bodies,
employing many people, and can for practical purposes be indistinguishable
from corporations. The limitation that these organisations may
commit the offence only if they are employers means that they
will already owe duties to the public under section 3 of the Health
and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and the extension of the Bill
will therefore impose no new duties on them,
5. The Government will keep under review the need
to extend the offence further. Although other forms of organisation
can cause deaths through gross negligence, the Government is not
aware of a practical deficiency in the existing law, since these
organisations will tend to be smaller and so if there has been
gross negligence it will be possible to identify an individual
as responsible. Moreover, the Government is concerned that there
must be clarity as to which bodies are capable of committing the
offence. If the offence were extended to cover all unincorporated
bodies, for example, there might be many informal clubs and societies
whose members would be unsure as to whether they risked liability
under the new offence.
6. However, the Government considers that it is prudent
to keep open the possibility of applying the offence to other
sorts of body, in the light of the operation of the new offence
and in case it emerges that there is a deficiency in the law as
applied to other types of unincorporated body. In this, it is
mindful of the recommendation of the Law Commission[6]
that the organisations to whom the new offence applied should
be kept under review.
7. The power to make incidental, supplemental or
consequential provision in subsection (2) of the new clause is
considered necessary because it might be appropriate to provide,
for example, that any new bodies brought within the scope of the
offence owed whatever duty of care they would owe if they were
bodies corporate (as the offence is based on the gross breach
of a duty of care), that proceedings against such bodies could
be brought in the name of the body, and that fines imposed on
such bodies were to be payable out of the funds of the body. It
might also be appropriate to provide that statutory provisions
about criminal proceedings applied, in relation to proceedings
for corporate manslaughter, to such bodies.
8. An order under the new clause would be subject
to the affirmative resolution procedure. The Department considers
this level of Parliamentary scrutiny is appropriate for an order
that would have the effect of making new categories of body liable
to a serious criminal offence.
Home Office
6 See Legislating the Criminal Code: Involuntary Manslaughter
(Law Comm No.237), paragraph 8.55. Back
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