Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
10:30 am
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, Ministry of Justice; Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I am so grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. He remembers the phrase because we were both dealing with Home Office affairs at the time. It is always good to have classical erudition added to the debate. Doli incapax is exactly the phrase that I was trying to recall. We had long discussions about whether it was right to extend to a lower age the assumed capacity of a child to know that they had done wrong.
That is an historical debate, however. The law was changed. Doli incapax was removed as a legal concept and children are now brought before the criminal courts at a much younger age. I tabled amendments Nos. 164 to 166 to enable the Government to state clearly at what age they expect the new orders to apply.