Reforms to corporate manslaughter bill agreed.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The government has agreed to make it easier to prosecute companies accused of corporate manslaughter, the home office minister, Fiona Mactaggart, said today.

However, officials refused to accept calls to include deaths in prison and police custody in revisions to its forthcoming bill, she said.

Ms Mactaggart put the government's response to the joint report on the draft manslaughter corporate bill, published by the Home Affairs and Work and Pensions Committee last March, before parliament.

"This is a key step towards getting the bill into parliament and an offence on the statute book," she said.

She said the government had accepted a number of the 57 recommendations made by the pre-legislative …