Coroners and Justice Bill

Briefly, I support and second what the noble Baroness said about the treatment of, and highly punitive approach to, children in the criminal justice system in this country. I commend the Government for the steps that they have taken to try to improve the criminal justice system in the way that it treats children and their endeavours to keep children out of the criminal justice system through Care Matters: Time for Change and Every Child Matters. However, we start from an extraordinarily low base. UNICEF has identified us as the worst performing developed country in terms of the welfare of children. The Church of England’s good childhood inquiry again identified how troubled many of our children are, particularly in this country, where there are very high levels of family breakdown. So often we are punishing our children because of their family backgrounds; because their parents are alcohol-dependent or drug-dependent; because they are bereaved and have lost a parent; because their parents have broken up; or because they belong to a generation-after-generation dysfunctional family. That is not to say that, for instance, those under 14 should not be treated firmly and made responsible for their actions, but we should take a more welfare-based approach to their needs. Most other countries have a minimum age of criminal responsibility above the age of 14. I am very concerned that many of these children, in particularly those under the age of 14, believe that it is their responsibility when their parents break up; when they feel unloved; when they see their parents fighting with one another. Working with children, I am so familiar with this. The child believes, "It is my fault that my family is not working". That is the nature of being a child: one imagines that the world revolves around one and that one is responsible for these things. By branding them as criminals at the age of 11 or 12, rather than choosing to use a welfare-centric approach, one is reinforcing the feeling that they are a criminal, guilty as charged and responsible for how their family does not function properly. I strongly second what the noble Baroness has said about the overpunitive nature of our society. This is well reflected in the international surveys such as that done by UNICEF. If we just look at the care system in this country, which we all recognise has failed our most vulnerable children, and look in the mirror, we have to see that unfortunately, historically, we have not treated our vulnerable children with support and understanding but with a lack of understanding and an overpunitive approach.