Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

then other vulnerable persons. They have been directed at the giving of
evidence. There has been slowness to develop them from assisting a
witness to assisting a defendant. The provision of an intermediary to
assist a defendant in giving evidence which is to be inserted as Section
33BA Youth and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 has yet to be brought into
force. It should be noticed that even when in force it will not enable the
provision of the use of an intermediary as any stage of the trial other than
that of the defendant giving evidence. We understand that the Ministry of
Justice are considering whether, having regard to available financial and
practical resources it would be possible to extend the statutory regime.
This situation is eased to an extent by the decision in R (on the
application of C v Sevenoaks Youth Court [2009] EWHC 3088 Admin.
It does, however, highlight the fact that special measures if they are to be
meaningful in setting the decision-making test, do need to cover all
aspects of the trial process and not merely the giving of evidence by an
accused.
32. We consider that applying special measures with this wider meaning
would lead to it being more likely that an accused would be found fit to
plead and therefore go towards the general aim which we set out in
paragraph 1. If “special measures” remain only to assist the accused in
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