Coroners and Justice Bill

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew; that was exactly the point I wished to make. He has made it clear. Perhaps it is worth putting it in my own terms, just so that I can be clear. The assumption is that these children will be caught under abnormal function of mind. That assumes that such children are suffering an abnormality of mind as defined within the defence of diminished responsibility. Such "abnormality of mind" can, under the Homicide Act 1957, include, ""arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury"." That does not include any reference to the perfectly natural condition of developmental immaturity in young children. It is wrong to equate childhood developmental immaturity, a normal part of growing up, with abnormality of mind, a concept derived from cases of offending adults with learning disabilities or psychiatric disorders. That the consultation did not throw up a strong call for this measure may reflect only the small number of children affected and the lack of a culture that prioritises child welfare. I would be interested to see, if possible, some of the details of that consultation—and I apologise if it has already been circulated. Dr Eileen Vizard, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist who gave evidence in the Bulger case and has been treating seriously disturbed young offenders for decades with the NSPCC, states: ""The overwhelming scientific and clinical evidence base is to the effect that ordinary children between 10 to 14 years old are naturally ‘developmentally immature’ and therefore unable to make fully adequate judgments about the true seriousness of their behaviour"." Dr Vizard also highlights how far psychiatry has advanced in recent years in the understanding of brain development in children, to which the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, referred, which continues into late adolescence, and she regrets how far the courts lag behind in applying that understanding. I consider that this amendment falls within the spirit of the Government’s welcome and progressive steps towards improving child welfare in this country in the 10 years that I have been sitting in your Lordships' House. These children of whom we are speaking will often be the sort of sexually or physically abused or neglected children about whom the Government have been so concerned and in whom they have invested so much. I recall the Quality Protects programme, which was dedicated to providing ring-fenced funding for children in care when the Government first came into office. It made such a difference. Since then there has been the Every Child Matters agenda, which looks at the vulnerability of all our children, and Care Matters, specifically for children in care. I pay tribute to the noble and learned Baroness the Attorney-General for her work on domestic violence, including the introduction of domestic violence courts and changes to legislation, which has protected children in families where they witness physical violence between their parents. Perhaps a boy would feel protective of his mother when he saw his father coming into the house in a drunken stupor. The Government have taken a lot of positive steps to improve protections for vulnerable children, and they may perhaps wish, on reflection, to embrace this amendment in that tradition. Amendment 161 relates to doli incapax. I regret I cannot support it for the reasons that I have already given. It is normal for under-14 year-olds not to have the developmental maturity to be capable of crime, that is, to be fully responsible for their actions in criminal regard. Doli incapax would allow children to show that they were incapable of crime. Children under 15 should not have to prove that they are normal in order to access protection. If anything, one should have to prove that they are abnormal—developmentally precocious—if they are to face criminal sanction. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.