Commentary on Provisions
Part 2 – criminal justice and procedure
Involvement of children in criminal proceedings: general
Section 13 – offences against children to which special provisions apply
61.Schedule 1 of the 1995 Act contains a list of offences against children under the age of 17 in relation to which special provisions apply. Those provisions are in section 46 of the 1995 Act and include presumptions about the age of a child involved in criminal proceedings (either as the victim or as the offender) relating to offences under the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937, those listed in schedule 1 of the 1995 Act and certain offences under the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.
62.As all persons under 18 will now be regarded as children for the purposes of the 1995 Act, section 13 amends schedule 1 to remove references to children aged under 17. As a result, schedule 1 and section 46 will apply in relation to offences committed against all children under 18.
63.Section 13(3)(a) also repeals section 46(5)(b) as that paragraph is no longer needed, as whether a person was subject to a CSO is now irrelevant to the question of whether they are a child or not for the purposes of the 1995 Act.
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