Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

MASTER VENNE
REGISTRAR OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
The Criminal Law and Evidence Team
The Law Commission
Steel House
11 Tothill Street
London SW1H 9LJ 27 th January 2011
Law Commission Consultation on Unfitness to Plead
I do not think it appropriate to comment on the proposals relating to the
substantive test to be applied in relation to capacity to stand trial nor in
relation to proposals which would extend the procedure into courts of
summary jurisdiction, but I hope you will find the following observations
on practice and procedure of some help.
By way of preliminary comment, it seems clear to me from a broad
overview of the cases brought to the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division,
under s15, Criminal Appeal Act, 1968, many of which are reviewed in the
Consultation Paper, that the unfitness procedure and its effects are not as
widely understood as might be hoped. Anything which can be done to
make the procedure easier to understand and more accessible, both by
practitioners and by the persons who may be affected, is to be
commended. It is, for example, rare indeed to see any consideration
given to any permissible postponement of the issue of fitness after it
arises or any overt consideration being given to the appointment of a
person to put the case for the defence in the s4A hearing. Many of the
Criminal Appeal Office Room C220 Royal Courts of Justice Strand London WC2A 2LL
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