Thorley Stephenson Solicitors Edinburgh Blog

A Holyrood committee of MSPs has backed a bill, published in March this year, to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland from eight years old to 12. Scotland's age of criminal responsibility is two years younger than the rest of the UK and Europe.

The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced a number of new measures aimed at ousting violent crime across England and Wales targeted at stopping young people becoming involved in violent crime. These new measures come after the publication of the Violence Strategy in April, which was a collaboration of partners from various sectors to deliver a multi-agency response to the rise in violent crimes.

The Scottish Government has awarded additional funding of a total of £1.1 million towards the prosecution service in an effort to combat court delays following a rise in the number of reported sexual offences in Scotland in recent years, with sexual offences now comprising “approximately 75% of the Crown Office’s workload”. The new funds provided are designed to go towards the improvement of communication between complainers and the Crown Court as well as to prevent any delays in cases going to court.

According to a recent article, official statistics have shown that the number of people serving time in prison for committing sexual offences has more than doubled since the year 2000. This rise in convicted sex offenders during this period was also met with an increase in the age profiles of offenders who have been convicted in historic cases.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been warned by personal injury experts that the government’s plans to increase the small claims limit from £1,000 to £2,000 for minor injury cases could impact up to 350,000 people a year in England and Wales by making it harder for victims to secure compensation from employers under these changes (in Scotland, the small claims threshold is currently at £3,000).