MSP seeks culpable homicide law change
22 Jun 06
Gillon's bill would lead to more "corporate killing" prosecutions for gross negligence
A Labour MSP has launched a bill to make it easier to prosecute companies and their managers for culpable homicide.
Karen Gillon is proposing that prosecutions could follow for deaths caused by gross negligence if responsibility could be proved. Under her bill there would be no Crown immunity.
Unlike the recent proposals of a Scottish Executive working party, the bill would not create a new offence of corporate killing. Ms Gillon simply intends to make it "slightly easier" to secure a conviction for the existing common law crime.
Ms Gillon's constituency is Clydeside, which covers Larkhall where four members of the Findlay family were killed by a gas explosion in 1999. An attempt to prosecute the gas firm Transco for culpable homicide was rejected by the appeal court.
The MSP told the Scottish Trades Union Congress in April that she would launch her own bill if the Scottish Executive did not act quickly enough. Speaking yesterday, Ms Gillon said she was launching the bill now as there would be little time for action if she left it until after the summer parliamentary recess.
She added that the Transco case demonstrated that the current law was neither fair nor equal and that to hold large companies to account for their actions would require a change in the law.