Challenge to age of criminal responsibility

The current age of criminal responsibilty is eight

The Scottish Law Commission has published proposals to abolish the age of criminal responsibility below which a child cannot be prosecuted.

Scotland has one of the lowest ages of consent in the world and under current rules children as young as eight can appear in court.

The commission admits that abolishing the age of consent could lead to even younger children being tried.

But it maintains that the Lord Advocate would act as a safeguard to ensure that no child was subject to legal proceedings they did not understand.

Current Lord Advocate Colin Boyd

The age of criminal responsibility denotes the age below which a child is considered mentally unable to commit crime.

Although in Scotland that means eight, in practice only half of one per cent of all child offenders come before the courts.

The remainder are sent to the Children's Panel, which is more focused in dealing with issues of welfare.

The Lord Advocate must intervene before anyone under 16 years can be charged before an adult court.

Legal proceedings

The Scottish Law Commission says he should continue to make that judgment, but it admited children even younger than eight could, in rare cases, appear in court.

Professor Gerard Maher of the law commission said courts would have to take into account a child's ability to understand legal proceedings.

Following the collapse last week of a sex abuse trial because a child witness could not give evidence, the issue of children appearing in adult courts is likely to remain under scrutiny.