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The Government's long-awaited Corporate Manslaughter Bill has been attacked for failing to include a clause pinning responsibility on individual directors.
During its second reading in the House of Commons, concerns were raised by several MPs that individual employees will not be held responsible or face jail-time if the company is found guilty of an offence.
Speaking in the Commons, Home Secretary John Reid said: "Basically, since we are considering a corporate offence, imprisonment will not be an option because individuals will not answer on behalf of any company or corporate organisation except in a legal capacity. Fines will be unlimited and one would expect substantial fines for the sort of offence that we are considering."
Leading the attack, LibDem MP Lorely Burt said: "On punishment and fines, will he [John Reid] explain why directors can be disqualified for gross breach of duty in respect of shareholders, investments, but not in respect of human lives?"
Reid countered: "I do not think that is correct. People can already be held to account for gross negligence that results in the loss of life, or in any other substantial loss, although a certain level of proof is required. The Bill introduces the concept of corporate manslaughter, which means that a corporate organisation can be held to account if its systemic and institutionalised failures and negligence across a range of activities are shown to have led to a death.
"I will go further than that. If the House passes this Bill, it will be possible to take a corporate organisation to court, expose it to public scrutiny and impose on it a guilty verdict and a substantial, unlimited fine, while individuals can be tried simultaneously for gross negligence leading to manslaughter."
The bill will now go to committee for amendments. The committee process will be finalised at the end of October and the Corporate Manslaughter Bill will then be given its third reading in the House of Commons.
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