Age-appropriate Care and Justice

Proposed legislation to ensure children receive age-appropriate justice and support has passed its first parliamentary stage, in a vital step towards Keeping the Promise.

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill contains measures to improve children’s experiences of Scotland’s care and justice systems. The Bill will deliver improvements to young people and communities affected by these issues – as victims, witnesses or children who have caused harm. It would see an end to the use of Young Offenders Institutions and prison for all children up to 18, with secure accommodation being the normal place of detention instead.

The Bill has been developed to align with the wider ambitions of incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into domestic law and the Scottish Government’s ambition to Keep the Promise by 2030.

Further proposals in the Bill include:

• Giving victims a clearer understanding of their right to request information from the Children’s Reporter.
• Tighter regulation for cross-border placements, to ensure that these happen only in exceptional cases where that move is in a child’s best interests
• Extending the presumption of anonymity of all children, including victims and witnesses and those who have caused harm
• Enabling secure care to support a young person past their 18^th birthday.
• Broadening the range of cases where a movement restriction condition may be applied to a child – only where needed to protect them, and others, from harm.