A charity that advises families bereaved from work-related deaths has written to all members of the House of Lords urging them to support the corporate manslaughter bill without further amendment
The CCA - the charity that advises families bereaved from work-related deaths and lobbies for legal and policy change - has urged all members of the House of Lords to support on Monday 25 June the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill without further amendment.
Although the CCA supports the principle that the Lords are fighting for - the application of the new offence to deaths in custody - and has itself argued for many years that the new offence should apply to these deaths, it believes that if members of the House of Lords insist on further death in custody amendments, the Bill seriously risks failing, and with it the hopes of families bereaved after work related deaths who have campaigned for it for so long.
In its letter, the CCA argues: "It is important to understand where this Bill came from in the first place - and why there is now a Bill close to being enacted. It is because of the lack of criminal accountability following the disasters (Zeebrugge, Piper Alpha, train crashes etc) and following the hundreds of individual work-place deaths each year that provided the momentum for this bill. It is also because of the campaigning, lobbying and meetings of trade unions, and safety organisations like the CCA, over the years, that there is a Bill at all.
"To allow this Bill to fail would be a gross injustice and a blow to families bereaved by work related death both now and in the future.
We understand that you may feel that any failure in the Bill should be placed on the shoulders of the Government and their decision not to accept your amendments. However, that would be of no comfort to bereaved families if the Bill is lost."
