UK corporate manslaughter bill stalls after Lords extend liability to prison deaths / JURIST, 6 February 2007
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/02/uk-corporate-manslaughter-bill-stalls.php
Brett Murphy
"A proposed bill on corporate manslaughter came to a standstill in the UK House of Lords [official website] on Monday when Conservative and Liberal Democrats voted for an amendment which broadened the scope of the law to include deaths in prisons and police cells. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill [Crown Prosecution Service backgrounder] was proposed by the government to make companies and organizations culpable for deaths under penalty of fines, but UK Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] said the Home Office would withdraw the bill if it was extended to deaths in prisons and cells. Lord Hunt [party profile], spokesperson for the Conservative Party, called the amendment a "triumph for natural justice" and labeled the Home Office's threat to withdraw the bill as "political blackmail."