Charity rejects Home Office claims

The NSPCC has denied Home Office allegations that it recommended
that the controversial familial homicide clause in the Domestic
Violence, Crime and Disorder Bill should apply to all 16 year
olds.

The clause – which campaigners want changed – would mean teenagers
as young as 16 could be found guilty of causing or allowing the
death of a child or vulnerable adult if they “ought to have
foreseen” the risk, even if they are not directly responsible for
that person.

A Home Office spokesperson stated said it had followed NSPCC and
Law Commission recommendations. But NSPCC public policy lawyer
Barbara Esam said that the charity had only recommended the age of
responsibility should be 16 years in relation to those with caring
responsibilities.

Esam said: “There is a danger innocent people will be wrongly
judged.”