DUP put pressure on Ulster Unionists to back petition of concern - and block raising the child prosecution age to 14
The DUP is calling on the Ulster Unionist Party to back its attempt to block reforms of the justice system which would mean children under 14 could not be prosecuted unless they commit crimes such as rape and murder.
Gavin Robinson says he expects Jon Burrows’s party to back a petition of concern ahead of a vote on Tuesday,
The DUP’s justice spokesperson Paul Frew said “the tough talking is welcome but it really needs backed up by action now” – urging UUP MLAs to back the motion.
The UUP is understood to be divided on both what the age of criminal responsibility (MACR) should be, and whether to back the DUP’s petition of concern (POC). Leader Jon Burrows is one of a number of the party’s MLAs who want to keep it at 10, and support the POC.
However, some of his MLAs back a proposal by Doug Beattie to set the threshold at 12 – and are opposed to the attempt to block it using cross community protections.
Addressing journalists in Stormont on Monday, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said use of the POC is “entirely appropriate”.
“It's a mechanism that's there if you don't have cross-community consent for any proposal. It's a mechanism that can be used.
“It's one that there's been significant restraint over the use of it, as you know, over many years now. But this is a touchstone principled issue, the age of criminal responsibility.
“We haven't got the entirety of the signatures yet. I understand the Ulster Unionists are considering that. I assume they will have no difficulty in signing a petition of concern on this issue, because our position is the same as theirs.Our position is reflected by their leader, and so if not today, then tomorrow, I imagine we should see the completion of a position that honourably reflects theirs and ours”.
Alliance, who initiated the proposals for 14, say that they are evidence based and that children under 14 don’t have the intellectual capacity to fully understand the consequences of their actions – or the judicial process. Despite that, the party wants exemptions for serious offences like murder and rape. Child protection expert Jim Gamble has questioned the logic of the exemptions, saying they “collapse the entire developmental argument”.