Lords amendment to Corporate Killing Bill

The House of Lords has voted to include prisons and police cells in the corporate killing legislation, defeating government attempts to esclude them. The government argued that such deaths can be adequately investigated by public inquiries, inquests and internal reviews.
Former Chief Inspector of prisons, David Rowbotham argued that deaths in custody should be included. He said that only one public inqyiry had been held into a death in custody, inquests deal only with the causes of death, and internal investigations are not made public.

The Prison Reform Trust, citing the case of Zahid Mubarak who was killed at Feltham young offenders institute after being bileted with a knowm racist, said:

"The family of a prisoner who died in custody as a result of corporate failure would find it incomprehensible that such negligence should be excluded from the ambit of the new legislation."

Home Secretary John Reid threatened to scrap the Bill if prisons and police cells were included.