Consultation ends: 20/10/08

The Ministry of Justice has launched a consultation on proposals for reforms of partial defences to murder of diminished responsibility and provocation and of the law on complicity in relation to homicide and infanticide.

The changes will mean the abolition of the existing partial defence of provocation and its replacement with two new partial defences of killing in response to a fear of serious violence and in exceptional circumstances only, killing in response to words and conduct which caused the defendant to have a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged.

Further information is available from the Ministry of Justice website.