Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration is being given to bringing charges of corporate manslaughter against VW executives who authorised the sale of diesel vehicles in the UK which did not meet the regulatory standards.

The Government wants to see Volkswagen face the appropriate legal consequences for its actions. Whilst we expect that the vast majority of the wrongdoing took place in Germany and so it is appropriate that the German authorities lead the investigation, the offence of corporate manslaughter would require clear evidence of a link between the actions of VW and the death of specific individuals and no such clear evidence exists at present. A decision on whether to pursue corporate manslaughter charges would be for the Crown Prosecution Service (England and Wales), the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (Scotland) or the Director of Public Prosecutions (Northern Ireland) to determine.