Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the recommendation made by the Law Commission as part of its project on Insanity and automatism in 2013, what steps the Government is taking to bring forward legislative proposals to replace the common law defence of insanity with a new defence of being not criminally responsible by reason of recognised medical condition.

The Government has considered the proposals in the Law Commission’s 2013 discussion paper.

Whilst we note the Law Commission’s proposals on the potential to update the law in this area, we have no current plans to bring forward legislative proposals in relation to this rarely used defence. However, we continue to keep this, and the wider and related law on unfitness to plead, under review.