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The government is still failing to develop a culture that puts the human rights of children at its core, according to the latest report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

The committee says that, in the government’s response to the committee’s 10th report on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it failed to accept several recommendations made by MPs and peers to improve the UK’s record on protecting children’s rights.

The committee concludes that there is still insufficient compliance with the convention by the government. In particular, it highlights the government’s failure to meet its promise to develop an overarching strategy for children and young people referring specifically to the rights, principles and provisions of the convention.

However, the latest report praises recent measures to establish a children’s commissioner for England, to appoint a new minister for children and families and the continued commitment to reducing child poverty.

But the government has failed to budge on several recommendations made by the committee on how children are treated in the youth justice system.

MPs and peers called for an increase in the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 and for the withdrawal of custody as an option for that group.

However, the government said it would continue to operate the youth justice system along its present lines, "with a clear and visible response to offending from age 10 upwards".

The committee warns that new intensive supervision or detention orders, which will combine custody with community supervision, will be used for children as young as 12 who are infrequent offenders and who would not normally have received a custodial sentence. It adds that it is "dismayed" by the government’s belief that holding 2,000 children in custody is a necessity.

Failure to recognise the need for a statutory right to special educational need support, to impose Children Act 1989 responsibilities on the prison service, and to scrap the "reasonable chastisement" defence to harming children is also criticised.

- The 18th Report of the Joint Committee of Human Rights from www.parliament.uk