The government will ‘hold firm’ on the age of criminal responsibility despite the findings of a recent critical parliamentary report on the matter, the House of Lords heard yesterday.

Francis Hare, the Earl of Listowel, questioned justice minister Lord McNally over the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s report on youth justice, which recommended that the age of criminal responsibility, currently 10 years, should be reviewed.

Hare, a cross-bencher and member of the group, told the Lords that the age of criminal responsibility in the UK is two years below the minimum age of 12 recommended by the committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He said that ‘the journey of many of the 10- to 13-year-olds entering the criminal justice system begins with alcoholic parents, continues with a disruptive mix of foster care, children’s homes and different schools, and concludes with entry into the criminal justice system’.

McNally said: ‘We hold firm that, although the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years, the thrust of the policy when children come into the care of the authorities is not to feed them into the criminal justice system but to apply as vigorously and holistically as possible responses to their needs to try to avoid them reoffending.

‘The factors that lead young people to offend are complex and can often include the circumstances that the noble Earl mentioned. That is why children who offend are referred to local multi-agency youth offending teams, which take a holistic approach to tackling the causes of offending, including housing, education, health and parenting issues.’

He added: ‘The difference in costs between putting young people into custody and finding alternative treatments is out of all proportion: it is tenfold. Therefore, there are both financial and practical attractions in this. For example, the pilots on intensive fostering, which were started by the previous administration, are well worth studying and are very encouraging. The cost of intensive fostering is about a tenth of that of keeping a young person in youth custody.

‘We are trying to make a system that diverts young people from criminal activity, while understanding that the activities of young people can be disruptive and frightening to the general population.’