Question reference: S6W-23226
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 27 November 2023
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 December 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to potential reforms of corporate criminal liability.
Answer
Possible reform to homicide law is currently being considered by the Scottish Law Commission. In paragraph 1.27 of the Scottish Law Commission's Homicide Project Discussion paper , it is indicated corporate homicide is one of a number of topics that the Commission will not be considering as part of their project. As paragraph 1.27 and associated footnotes indicates, this is because a Members' Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2020 in this area of law and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament made a statement that the Bill was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament.
Within this context, the Scottish Government is not considering any potential reforms to corporate criminal liability with responsibility for any such reform falling to the UK Government.