Defence (Amendment) Act 2007

Amendment of section 202 of Principal Act (mental disorder at time of trial).

50.— Section 202 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) in paragraph (a), by substituting “the military judge presiding at the court-martial” for “the court-martial”, and

(ii) in paragraph (b)—

(I) by substituting “the military judge, if he is” for “the court-martial, if it is”, and

(II) by substituting “the Mental Health Act 2001 ” for “the Act of 2001”,

(b) by inserting the following after subsection (1):

“(1A) In the case of a general court-martial or limited court-martial, the question of whether a person charged with an offence is fit to be tried shall be determined, and the finding shall be made, by the military judge sitting alone.”,

(c) by deleting subsection (2),

(d) in subsection (3), by inserting the following after paragraph (b):

“(bb) in the case of a general court-martial or limited court-martial, object to a member of the court-martial board to whom he might wish to object,”,

(e) by substituting the following for subsection (4):

“(4) After the military judge presiding at a court-martial has found that a person charged with an offence is unfit to take his trial, the military judge may on application to him and without prejudice to any further proceedings allow evidence to be adduced before the court-martial as to whether or not that person did the act or made the omission alleged against him and if the summary court-martial or, in the case of a general court-martial or limited court-martial, the court-martial board, is satisfied that there is a reasonable doubt that the person committed that act or made the omission, the summary court-martial or the court-martial board, as the case may be, shall acquit him.”,

and

(f) by inserting the following subsection:

“(5) In this section and in section 203 ‘consultant psychiatrist’ has the same meaning as in the Mental Health Act 2001 .”.