Is 12 right for age of responsibility?

Current Bill in Holyrood should be catalyst for wider discussion on what is best for vulnerable children

Just a fortnight ago MSPS backed the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill at stage one. The Bill aims to increase – from eight to 12 – the age at which a person is considered old enough to be responsible for their actions and held criminally accountable for them.

The age limit of eight is two years younger than the rest of the UK, the lowest figure in Europe and one of the lowest in the world. It dates back to legislation in 1933.

We write today on the Kilbrandon Again report which recommends raising the age of criminal responsibility to 16 and creating a discrete justice system for 16 to 21-year-olds.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says that 12 should be “the absolute minimum”, and that anything lower is not considered “internationally acceptable”. Countries including China, Japan and South Korea set the age at 14 and some South American countries have opted for 18, including Uruguay and Colombia.

It looks likely that this change will be made at Holyrood but a key question is whether it goes far enough? Are we doing the bare minimum?

Children and crime always makes headlines, but cases such as Jamie Bulger are extremely rare. The majority of work dealt with by the Children’s Panel in Scotland involves youngsters from troubled backgrounds.

At the core of the new report is how and when we support children, and when we allow the full weight of the criminal justice system to come down on them.

The Scotsman revealed the heartbreaking story of William Lindsay, who took his own life within 48 hours of being remanded into custody at Polmont Young Offenders Institute. Social workers wanted him to be kept within the Children’s Hearings System and placed within a secure unit, but there were no spaces available.

This goes to a second key point from Kilbrandon Again: there are simply not enough places as four out of five of the country’s secure units – run by charities – are reliant on market forces and so take children from England.

Politicians want to be tough on law and order. Experience shows that this plays well with large sections of the electorate. But we also have a duty to protect vulnerable children and give them every chance to get back on track. The current Bill going through Holyrood should be a catalyst for wider discussion on the key points of this report.