The age of criminal responsibility in Scotland is to be raised from eight to 12, as part of sweeping justice reforms, ministers confirm.

Raising the age of criminal responsibility from eight will keep young children out of the prison system Scotland is to raise the age of criminal responsibility at which children can appear in adult criminal courts to 12, two years older than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The change in legislation, a key recommendation in the 2002 Scottish Law Commission report, raises the age from eight,...

Age of criminal responsibility to be increased from eight to 12.

SOME criminals could be spared jail if they are parents, Scotland's new children's tsar has said.

Exclusive: more than 1500 people have been wrongly branded as criminals or mistakenly given a clean record by the government agency set up to vet those working with children.

Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, is considering raising the age at which child offenders can be prosecuted which could see youngsters under 12 escape action.

The age of criminal responsibility should be raised to ensure fewer young people become serial offenders, the ex-head of the Youth Justice Board says.

This is Peter Hitchens' Mail on Sunday columnIf we can’t make criminals fear the law, then we will have to live in fear of criminals. It is that simple. When I first warned of this some years back, it was...

The figure is a five-fold increase in just a decade, according to the children's charity Barnardo's. Barnardo's said the increase meant that many children were "being written off" by the age of 12. In 1997, the Government lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children from 14 to 10. Custodial sentences were handed down to 844 children in the age group in 2007, including 133...

Vetting by the new Independent Safeguarding Authority will mean every adult is a potential criminal and children will be no safer argues Philip Johnston.