when was the legal age of consent introduced uk
Age of consent reform in the United Kingdom In 1275, the first age of consent was set in England, at age 12 (Westminster 1 statute).[4] In 1875, the Offences Against the Person Act raised the age to 13 in Great Britain and Ireland, and ten years later the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 raised it to 16.[5][6] In 1917, a bill raising the age of consent in Great Britain and Ireland from 16 to 17 was defeated by only one vote.[7]
Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom The UNCRC defines children, for the purposes of the Convention, as persons under the age 18, unless domestic legislation provides otherwise. In that spirit, this timeline includes as children all those below the UK age of majority, which was 21 until 1970 when it was reduced to 18. Although the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are not constitutionally part of the UK, the British government is responsible for their external affairs and therefore for their international treaty obligations, so this timeline includes references to matters in those dependencies.