---

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

I fundamentally disagree with the right hon. and learned Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg). I understand his point—we need to avoid the unintentional consequence. However, it would be undesirable to create a presumption that it was possible to escape the impact of the law by erecting specific corporate structures. The creation of holding companies to avoid liability would make nonsense of what we are trying to achieve. There is an increasing trend of international holdings companies—almost asset holding companies—coming to this country where we have, in many ways rightly, an open economy, buying into a company and taking little interest in it except for driving tough bargains on corporate objectives. The corporate objective is to maximise the return on assets in the quickest possible time. One of the problems almost exactly reflects what my hon. Friend the Minister read to us earlier when we considered P&O and the Herald of Free Enterprise. No hon. Member wants to create a structure whereby companies can avoid liability unintentionally—or even intentionally—while driving a tough bargain that goes against the safety case. We must consider the logic of the case, even if the new clause is not correctly structured. We should also do that with amendment No. 1 and the debate about unincorporated and incorporated structures. I hope that the Minister will make it clear from the Dispatch Box that the Government remain seized of the matter. It is important to be reassured that it can be taken forward between here and another place and that amendments will be made to plug possible gaps, which the Government do not intend and no hon. Member wants.