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Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

The noble Baroness will have to take on other Home Office Bills, and no doubt the great legislative mill in the Home Office will continue to grind them out in a way that we will keep her and the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, fully occupied. The noble Baroness sent me a very useful letter, which I think was copied to all those who took part at Second Reading. She touched on these matters, stating that the government amendments will provide the exemption only on decisions about whether a child should be taken into the care or supervision of a local authority rather than applying it more widely to the provision of services to children and families. All I really wish the Minister to confirm is that, as his colleague in another place stated, the amendment brought forward in another place on Report will ensure that certain potential scenarios will not be exempted; for example, where checks had not been carried out on foster parents and it was later discovered that they had committed offences on children in the past and had then killed a child placed in their care by the local authority. Will he confirm that such a gross failure on the part of the local authority could be captured? I maintain that where there are gross negligence failures in management within a local authority or a public body which result in the death of a child, they should be held responsible through criminal trial. There can be nothing more criminal than the gross neglect of such a child’s needs. However, I acknowledge the difficulties within the childcare system. Therefore, I await the Minister’s response with interest. I beg to move.