Recent studies have shown that almost half of the defendants in magistrates’ courts attending from custody have a diagnosable mental health condition or disorder. Similarly, one in five defendants attending on bail from the community were found to be mentally unwell.
In line with this, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the National Police Chiefs’ Council developed the Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Checklist, with the hopes of improving the depth and quality of information provided to CPS prosecutors before they make charging and case management decisions.
