Too young to vote, old enough for the dock: Calls to raise age of criminal responsibility grow

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

A ten-year-old is too young to leave the school gates without a parent’s permission, let alone cast a ballot. They can’t work a paper round, open a bank account or see a 12A film without an adult. They are, in almost every sense, dependent on the grown-ups around them.

Yet, the moment they cross a certain line – that protective bubble vanishes. Under current law, a child still in primary school is considered mature enough to stand in a dock, be questioned under caution and carry a criminal record that could follow them for decades.

This paradox was at the heart of a Senedd debate on Wednesday (January 14) as Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 14.

He told the Welsh Parliament: “A child still in primary school can be arrested, questioned under caution, prosecuted, convicted, and marked, sometimes for years, by an encounter with the criminal courts. I believe we should raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

“That’s not to be soft on crime, as some would see it – it’s to be smart on crime, clear-eyed, with a hard-headed focus on what the evidence tells us.”

‘Conveyor belt of future crime’

He warned: “The evidence is all in one direction: criminalising 10, 11, 12 and 13-year-olds is to create a conveyor belt of future crime, pulling children deeper into the system, widening the net, turning one incident into the beginning of a longer offending career.”

The former Plaid Cymru leader criticised the “crude” current threshold, saying: “The age of criminal responsibility is not just a number, it’s a line that determines whether we treat a child primarily as a child who needs help or an offender to be processed.

Mr Price pointed out that the doctrine of “doli incapax” – which presumed children aged 10 to 13 were incapable of criminal intent unless proven otherwise – was abolished in 1998.

Warning of an incoherent and unfair system, he said: “Nothing better replaced it. So, now we have the worst of both worlds – a very low threshold with none of the old protections.”

He added: “As long as the legal age for criminal responsibility stays at 10, that… creates a constant pull towards court when what a child actually needs is something else: protection, support, supervision, help with mental health and, where necessary, secure care.”

‘A purely punitive response misses the point’

Mr Price stressed early intervention does not require early criminalisation. “This is not an argument for doing nothing,” he said. “It’s an argument for doing the right thing.”

A 2023 inquiry by the Senedd’s equality committee highlighted a hidden crisis: at least 60% of young people in the justice system have a speech, language or communication need.

“Think about what that means,” said Mr Price. “It affects whether a child understands the police caution, whether they can tell their story clearly, whether they can follow what’s happening in court, take instructions, understand consequences or engage with anything designed to change their behavior.”

The MP-turned-Senedd member added: “Sometimes, the most serious harm by children is tangled up with exploitation. Children can be groomed into offending, coerced, threatened, controlled by older criminals. When that happens, a purely punitive response misses the point. It treats the exploited child as the problem rather than as a child in danger.”

‘Glaring contradiction’

Rhian Croke, a human rights expert at the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, has warned of a “glaring contradiction” within the Wales and England legal system.

She wrote: “This legal mismatch is not just technical – it reflects a deeper inconsistency…. On the one hand, we delay rights like voting, full medical consent or signing contracts until 16 or 18. On the other, we impose adult-like punishments on children still in primary school.”

Dr Croke pointed out that the age of criminal responsibility in Wales is the lowest in Europe. This means children can be interviewed, detained, subject to strip searches, prosecuted, sentenced and given a criminal record that follows them into adulthood.

Warning Wales and England is an international outlier, she said: “Further afield, it may be interesting to learn the minimum age of criminal responsibility is higher in China and Russia.”

Dr Croke cautioned that criminalising children as young as 10 can cause significant and lasting harm as well as make reoffending more likely – not less.

‘Extensive evidence’

Jane Hutt, Wales’ social justice secretary, stressed that while the Senedd can debate the issue – the power to change the law remains locked in Westminster.

Reiterating calls for powers over youth justice, she committed to raising the issue during a forthcoming meeting with Jake Richards, the UK youth justice minister.

Ms Hutt told the Welsh Parliament: “I’m very conscious of the extensive evidence in favour of raising the age of criminal responsibility.”

In 2019, John Thomas – the ex-head of the judiciary – led a commission on justice in Wales, which recommended raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 12.

Scotland raised the age to 12 in 2021. The United Nations has urged the UK Government to raise the age to 14 in Wales and England but Westminster has resisted the calls.