Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

If one were to use standardised tests, which I would recommend, then
the fitness issue becomes one for a multi-professional approach; This
would immediately increase the people able to advise the court, and
ensure that different issues, as noted above could be considered. That
is, different sets of limiting factors affecting the defendant in their
criminal proceedings could be taken into account.
However, in a time of austerity, one would have to ask if there is the
political will to manage such a process.
For some people standardised tests would be of great use, for others,
less so.
What would be of assistance to the court?
In my view, a brief IQ test (taking 20-30 minutes) would be helpful.
Focusing on an hour long (often much longer to undertake with a
learning disabled individual) IQ test is of little benefit, as IQ in and of
itself is of limited value.
Anyone with an IQ score below 79 will struggle to some extent in court.
Hence, some support will invariably be required, even though many,
due to negative school experiences, will try to avoid it.
However, if one considers the fitness issues, the population where this
arises (those with low IQ scores) are not typically involved in complex
crimes and as such, the focus is more likely than not on social
interactions.
That is, how does IQ impact on social interactions, such as criminal
behaviour?
This, in turn, has implications for how they will then react to the court
process.
It is the combination of factors that determine not only their criminal
behaviour, but also their fitness to plea and their ability to manage the
court process.
If one uses the original Pritchard criteria as the foundation of the fitness
argument, then a shift away from intellect, toward social skills would be
of use. After all, court is a mixture of the two and not reliant exclusively
on one area or the other.
A reading test/s (accuracy and comprehension) would also be of use,
as this will enable all sides to understand how reliant the defendant is
on their defence counsel for accessing evidence. These typically take
15 to 20 minutes to complete. When done by the side of a short-form IQ
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