Labour considers raising age of criminal responsibility amid youth justice overhaul

The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales could be raised to as high as 14 under David Lammy's overhaul to the youth justice system.

The Youth Justice White Paper, published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), sets out a major re-think as to how Britain's justice system handles young offenders.

Mr Lammy said Labour would "carefully consider" whether the existing age of criminal responsibility - 10 - reflected "modern understanding of childhood, vulnerability and development in today's society".

The reforms also pledge to cut the number of children held in custody by a fifth within three years, with around 420 under-18s currently detained.

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Additional measures include overhauling how childhood criminal records are disclosed and granting judges authority to imprison parents whose children persistently reoffend.

England and Wales, along with Northern Ireland, has the lowest age of criminal responsibility anywhere in Europe.

The threshold has stood at 10 since 1963, when it was raised from eight.

By contrast, Germany sets its limit at 14, Sweden at 15, and Portugal at 16.

Scotland already operates under different rules, with children unable to face criminal charges until they reach 12.

The MoJ document references a report by the UN, which advocates for the age to be lifted to 14.

Ministers are also examining the Irish model, where the general threshold is 12 - but children aged 10 or 11 may still be prosecuted for the most serious offences including murder, manslaughter and rape.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy has voiced strong opposition to the proposed changes, warning that even young children are capable of horrific acts.

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"Labour don't have it in their DNA to be tough on crime," Mr Timothy declared, adding there was "a lot to worry about in these proposals".

He pointed to the 1993 murder of two-year-old James Bulger by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10 at the time, as evidence that young people can commit acts of "extreme cruelty and violence".

The pair became Britain's youngest convicted murderers and would have escaped prosecution entirely had the age threshold been just one year higher.

Mr Timothy also criticised what he described as "artificial targets to reduce imprisonment rates regardless of the level of crime".

Kirsty Brimelow KC, who leads the Bar Council, argued that major legal reforma were necessary to align with contemporary understanding of child development.

"There needs to be a shift from criminalisation, which long has been shown to set a child on to a path of crime, to rehabilitation," she said.

The Bar Council's own review is expected to recommend raising the age threshold when it reports in coming weeks.

The Youth Justice White Paper also proposes ending the lifelong obligation for individuals to reveal criminal offences committed during their youth.

However, the MoJ emphasised that records would not be "wiped" entirely, with disclosure still required for the gravest offences including violent crimes.

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