No, its a complete defence. However you would need to prove it was reasonable in the circumstances. If someone punches you, and you kill them... that's unreasonable and the defence won't be upheld
Its a crime in the UK, self defence in almost any form is a crime in the UK. Personally I don't think it should be as long as you used reasonable force to defend yourself.
Usually if you had no choice, other than killing the person that wanted to kill you, this won't be considered a crime, but if someone came to you to hurt and you ended up killing him, now this is a crime. And of course you have to react right after it happened. If someone had a gun at your head to steal something and he steals and then is going to escape, you can't kill or hurt him, you had to do something when he had the gun at your head.