Leigh Day submits evidence to JCHR

Richard Meeran and Daniel Leader of leading human rights law firm Leigh Day & Co have submitted evidence on behalf of the firm to the Joint Committee on Human Rights. 

Leigh Day & Co suggests the following possible legislative, judicial and non-judicial changes for consideration by the Committee:

1. Amendment of UK legislation to make business subject to ICC provisions where an offence is authorised or permitted by (a) the board (b) a “high managerial agent” of the business; (c) as a result of a “corporate culture” within the business.
2. An inference, rebuttable with the onus on the defendant, that a parent company does, as a matter of fact, have control over the conduct of its overseas subsidiaries.
3. Introduction of opt out class actions into UK law.
4. Extension of the HRA to cover all publicly funded functions, including businesses to whom functions have been contracted out by public authorities, such as private companies running immigration detention facilities and providing escort services during immigration removals and deportations; and private businesses with publicly funded safety obligations, such as Railtrack.
5. Expansion of the acceptance/use of PCOs to all cases where the interests of justice and need for equality of arms require it, including private law proceedings against private companies.
6. Unification of the various soft law initiatives, codes of practice and principles for corporate accountability into a single independent body or commission which would have the dual roles of i) providing detailed guidance to business as to best practice when conducting business in the developing world and ii) offering a robust complaints mechanism and remedies for victims of those companies who have flouted human rights standards when conducting business. We would support the CORE Coalition proposal for a UK Commission on Business, Human Rights and the Environment, however, we accept that a good deal of thought would have to be given as to how this would work in practice.