Clause 2 — Meaning of "relevant duty of care"
Orders of the Day
8:30 pm
David Heath (Shadow Leader of the House of Commons & Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, Cabinet Office; Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I am new to the Bill, but I have been listening carefully to the Minister's argument. He seems constantly to return to the difficulty of the prison environment and the Government's willingness to improve it to mitigate the problems. However, that seems to accept the fact that the gross breach of a duty of care is an absolute measure. It is not; it is relative to the circumstances that apply in each case. If the Prison Service is working in difficult circumstances and doing the best job it can it will not be guilty of a gross breach of a duty of care, so the Minister's argument does not make sense.