Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

The Response of H.M. Circuit Judges to the Law Commission’s
Introduction
Consultation Paper “Unfit to plead”.
1. We hope that it may be of assistance if we make some comments about
the present experience of the Circuit Judges who sit mainly in the Crown
Courts.
2. We have noticed an increase in the number of cases in which the issue of
unfitness to plead is raised. This does not mean that there has been the
same increase in the number of cases in which the issue is pursued. In
many cases, a psychiatric report will be obtained which makes it clear
that there is no such issue. This may be due to a number of reasons.
Sometimes there is a lack of understanding of the legal issue which
arises. Some advocates equate mental disorder and learning disabilities
with being unfit to plead. We think that without a proper scheme for
informing practitioners about the new test, this problem may increase. In
other cases, there is a change in the degree of mental disorder which
means that the defendant is no longer to be considered unfit to plead. For
example, a defendant who has suffering from a psychotic episode,
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