Schedule 1 - Modification of sections 12 to 15 for Northern Ireland
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I am sure that advice on that will be with me soon. Perhaps I can clarify the position with the hon. Lady later in the debate. I am pleased that she welcomes the extension of the provisions to Northern Ireland.
As I said, the defendant can be sent compulsorily to hospital only if he is found unfit to plead and a jury finds that he did the act with which he was charged, so a person who is found unfit to plead by the judge will still have a jury to decide on the facts of his case. If the jury decides that he did not do the act with which he was charged, it must return a verdict of acquittal as it would if the case had proceeded to trial. In that case, the defendant walks out of the court completely free.
It is rare for medical evidence of fitness to be contested. In the first five years of the operation of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991, evidence on fitness was challenged in only 10 per cent. of cases in which it was submitted. Frankly, it erodes the significance of the jury system for juries to be required to rubber-stamp what is often technical and professional evidence.
The second way in which the measure benefits the defendant is in relation to what happens if he disagrees with the decision that he is unfit to plead. If he disagrees, he is far better served by a judge making that decision, not a jury. The judge will have to give reasons for his or her decision, which will be open to challenge on appeal. Those reasons will be available to a defendant wishing to go to the Court of Appeal, but no reasons are given when a jury makes the decision. The proposal for the judge to make the decision puts the defendant in a more favourable position in the event of an appeal.
The remainder of the amendments in the group are consequential, applying mainly to Northern Ireland, to reflect the change of responsibility for determining fitness to plead. I realise that the matter caused some controversy in the other place, but I hope that the Committee will be reassured that the proposals are positive. First, they will not undermine the right to trial by jury; secondly, they simplify the court process; and thirdly, they strengthen the rights of defendants who may also be vulnerable. On those grounds, I hope that the measures will be included in the Bill.