Changes to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, due to come into force today, will have the effect of bringing deaths in custody within the remit of the Act.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission report in December 2010 identified 333 deaths in police custody between 1998 and 2009. According to the organisation Inquest, over the same period there were 995 deaths in prison custody where the death was self-inflicted, the result of restraint, homicide, or other non-natural causes.
Previously, the prison service, police forces and immigration units were not subject to the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act but the amendments will mean the Act now covers all deaths in police custody suites, prison cells, mental health detention facilities, young offenders institutions and immigration suites. It will also cover Ministry of Defence institutions.
