Coroners and Justice Bill

This has been a very complex debate. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, and the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, for the powerful speeches they made enabling us all better to understand things from a psychiatric and psychological point of view. That is a very important benefit. I will take very seriously the invitation of a number of noble Lords, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, and the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, to say things on the record which clearly identifies the way in which the Government are thinking. Bearing in mind the nature and breadth of these amendments, I anticipate that that might take me a little while. I say to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, how much I appreciated his succinct exposition of this matter. Will he forgive me if I have to take just a little longer, although I agree that it is very nice to be in comity on the odd occasion? Amendment 151, which was spoken to so well by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, Amendments 155A, 156A and 156B, spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, and Amendment 154, spoken to by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, all deal with developmental immaturity. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said quite clearly that the concept of developmental immaturity formed part of the Law Commission’s recommendations on reform of the partial defence of diminished responsibility. The Law Commission recommended that in the case of a person aged under 18, developmental immaturity ought to be a possible basis for the partial defence as well as or in combination with an abnormality of mental functioning arising from a recognised medical condition. The Law Commission’s recommendation was specifically limited to defendants aged under 18, as a number of noble Lords have said. Amendment 151 would of course go even further and apply it to any defendant. However, following very wide consultation, the Government decided not to accept the Law Commission’s recommendation to extend the partial defence of diminished responsibility to include a developmental immaturity limb for under-18s and would certainly not support a developmental immaturity limb without any age limit. It is important to explain why we came to that conclusion. There are two reasons. The first is that there is no provision for developmental immaturity in the current law of diminished responsibility, and we do not believe that the case has been made that there is a real problem to be addressed. Indeed, the diminished responsibility partial defence should, we believe, be fully adequate to meet appropriate cases involving under 18 year-olds and adult defendants. I accept entirely what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, that there is a wide variation of maturity and that people mature at different ages, but we have to look at the mischief that needs to be cured. Is this a mischief that needs to be addressed? Secondly, there are some clear drawbacks to introducing the developmental immaturity limb to the defence. When discussing the concept of developmental immaturity, a distinction has been made by some between so-called abnormal and normal developmental immaturity. We heard that in this debate. An abnormal immaturity, as has been clear from various statements, is where the child is in some way unusually underdeveloped for their age. The Government believe that such abnormal immaturity is covered by the diminished responsibility partial defence we are proposing, as we would expect the child in such a case to be suffering from a recognised medical condition. So we would argue that there is no need to make explicit provision. That would also apply to an abnormally immature adult. Normal immaturity—if that is not a contradiction in terms—is where the child is around the level of maturity one would expect for their age but less mature than one would expect an adult to be. We accept that the proposed diminished responsibility partial defence does not make provision for normal immaturity but we are not at all convinced that it is necessary or desirable to introduce a separate developmental immaturity limb for this purpose, as was said by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd. As I have indicated, during our consultation we did not receive any evidence that the existing law is causing real difficulties in practice as a result of the absence of a developmental immaturity provision or that injustice is occurring in specific cases. A number of noble Lords underlined that we have to address the injustice; that point was made strongly by the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice. I fully understand and sympathise with the concerns of noble Lords that young people who are genuinely vulnerable should be able to benefit from the diminished responsibility partial defence to murder, a point strongly made by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, among others. Let me reassure your Lordships about cases which are undeniably deserving and which would be categorised as abnormal immaturity. For example, if the child defendant has been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and this has substantially impaired his or her ability to understand the nature of their conduct, to form a rational judgment or exercise self-control, or any combination of the three, such a child would fall within the diminished responsibility partial defence as proposed. The same considerations would apply if one were to substitute, for example, learning disability or frontal lobe disorder for autistic spectrum disorder in the example that I have just given. The conditions I have mentioned are all listed in the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases—ICD-10—and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I hope that noble Lords will accept that these are probably the best known and most highly regarded—