Lord Lemos (Lab)

My Lords, the Government strongly agree that there must be individual senior accountability for the duty of candour and assistance, with those who have engaged in state cover-ups held responsible. The Bill has been designed to deliver precisely this. The most senior individual in a public authority is under a specific duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure their authority complies with its obligations under the duty of candour. If they fail to do so, they face prosecution. They can, of course, also be prosecuted as an individual official in their own right if they breach the duty of candour personally. And if anyone in a management position has consented to or connived with the breach of another, they can also be prosecuted. We think the right approach is to hold the heads of authorities accountable for things they can reasonably be expected to do or not do. That is in the spirit of command responsibility and we are confident that such accountability will have the effect of driving positive cultural change. Amendment 8, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, would have a different effect. It would provide that, while the duty was on the public authority, the head of the authority was responsible for the discharge of that duty. In effect, that would mean that the duty was not on the public body but only on the head. We think it is important that the duty of candour applies to public bodies corporately as well as officials individually. Inquiries and inquests can and do regularly issue requests to authorities corporately, but the amendment would mean the body would not in effect be under the duty of candour, but rather the head would be individually. This would create an inconsistency and we do not think it would be practically effective. As I have set out, the Bill already provides for command responsibility and has clear provisions that place a specific duty on the head of an authority to take all reasonable steps to ensure its compliance. We are confident that these are strong and leave no gaps, but we are open to considering alternative formulations and we will consider the existing provisions carefully in the light of both these amendments. I therefore hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, will feel able to withdraw her amendment.