Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Law Commission’s discussion paper, entitled Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism, published on 23 July 2013, if his Department will conduct a review into the use of automatism as a legal defence.

The government is grateful to the Law Commission for their discussion paper on “Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism” published in 2013. The government has noted their proposals and has no immediate plans to conduct a further review as the defence of automatism is used so rarely, however, we have not ruled out the possibility of reform in the future. We keep the law in this area under appraisal alongside related law on insanity and unfitness to plead.