A FAMILY from the North-East is joining bereaved families from across the UK in pressing the Government to bring in a corporate killing law against negligent employers.

George Stewart from Newcastle will lobby MPs at the House of Commons today, for a change in the law.

Paul, his 24-year-old son, and three other men, were killed in September 1999, when a gantry collapsed on the Avonmouth Bridge, near Bristol, throwing them to the ground below.

In December 2001, northern firms Costain Ltd and Yarm Road Ltd (formerly Kvaerner Cleveland Bridge Ltd) were fined £250,000 each after pleading guilty to health and safety offences.

Relatives of three Hull men killed in April 2000 when a house in the city collapsed on top of them, will also join the lobby of MPs.

Besides a new corporate killing law, the bereaved families want reforms to health and safety law which will impose safety duties upon company directors, increase the level of fines that courts can impose upon convicted companies and abolish Crown immunity.

They will also call on the Government to increase the number of health and safety Inspectors significantly.