Government opens door to raising age of criminal responsibility

The Ministry of Justice White Paper, Cutting Youth Crime. Changing Young Lives, published yesterday, commits the government to carefully considering the findings of a Bar Council review currently under way into whether the minimum age remains appropriate for the modern era. Any decision on reform would follow that review and would not, the document stresses, be rushed.

England and Wales currently have one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in Europe, with most comparable countries setting the threshold at 12, 14 or higher.

The proposal forms part of a wider package of reforms aimed at reducing youth offending, cutting the use of custody and increasing early intervention.

Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar Council, welcomed the White Paper’s approach but made clear that the direction of travel should be away from criminalisation. “Knowledge about child development has moved on substantially and yet the minimum age of criminal responsibility remains at 10 years old in England and Wales,” she said. “It is the youngest in Europe and we are an outlier in prosecuting young children.” The Bar Council’s report on the issue is expected within weeks.

In practice, the White Paper acknowledges, very few of the youngest children who offend receive formal criminal justice outcomes — fewer than 50 sentences have been handed to children under 12 in the past five years, none of them custodial. The government also notes that international comparisons are more nuanced than they first appear: Ireland, for example, sets its general threshold at 12 but retains the ability to prosecute ten and eleven-year-olds for murder, manslaughter and rape. The paper repeatedly stresses that avoiding unnecessary criminalisation “must never mean not intervening.”

The review comes despite continuing concern over knife crime, county lines exploitation and serious violence involving children and teenagers. The document references the Southport murders as evidence of the need for agencies to intervene “earlier and more effectively” when risks escalate.

The White Paper also proposes a series of wider reforms to the youth justice system, including the creation of new Youth Intervention Courts, an overhaul of youth diversion schemes and a target to reduce the number of children held on custodial remand by 25%. Ministers also want to strengthen parenting orders, review criminal records rules for children and reduce the use of short custodial sentences, while increasing earlier intervention for children considered at risk of offending.

The government said custody would remain available for “the most serious and high-risk children” but argued the current system relies too heavily on criminal justice responses that can entrench offending.

Justice secretary David Lammy said: “If we want fewer adult offenders, and fewer victims, we must intervene earlier and more effectively.”