The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and Human Rights, Part II: has universal legal protection of the right to life been advanced in a custodial setting?

Part I of the paper considered whether the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CMCHA) has served as a vehicle for the government to comply with its duties under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, or whether the reservations expressed at the time have proved to be well founded. Part II will focus on the provisions relating to deaths in custody and assess to what extent the Act has acted as a means for protecting vulnerable detainees and inmates.
While the CMCHA 2007 was implemented in April 2008, it was not until September 2011 that it was extended to apply to custodial deaths. At the time the inclusion of the death in custody provisions were strongly resisted by the government on a number of grounds, including cost, risk aversion and the view that existing methods of accountability were adequate, and although since 2011 it has been possible to prosecute an organisation for corporate manslaughter if a child or adult dies in custody, no such prosecution has ever been attempted. This paper considers the obstacles that stand in the way of such a prosecution, and concludes that the UK is not complying with its duty under Article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 to secure the right to life in custodial institutions.