A GWENT AM has called for the age of criminal responsibility to be increased from 10 to 12, saying doing so would help avoid youngsters becoming drawn into “a cycle of reoffending”.

Steffan Lewis, who was elected to the Assembly for the first time on the South East Wales regional list in May, also called for a consultation to be launched into increasing the age further yet, saying to do so would bring England and Wales in line with other countries.

But his views have come under fire from Monmouth MP David Davies, who said it would make policing cross-border crimes needlessly complicated.

Mr Lewis said he believed criminalising young children was not the correct way forward.

“Once a child is drawn into the criminal justice system, it can become difficult for them to escape a cycle of reoffending,” he said.

“We should instead be focusing on children’s wellbeing and providing the support needed to help them move on from their behaviour.”

Issues such as justice, policing and the law are not currently devolved to Wales, but Mr Lewis said handing responsibility over these areas to the Assembly would allow his proposal to go ahead.

“There is a growing international consensus about the need to respond to children who commit crimes in a compassionate and fair way,” he said.

“The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has made it clear that a minimum age of criminal responsibility below the age of 12 years is not acceptable.

“The law must be changed to be in line with international guidelines as soon as possible.”

Calling for a public debate on the issue, he added: “Serious offences committed by children are extremely rare, but can, of course, be devastating for the victims.

“The focus should always be on the safety and security of our communities, but the answer is not criminalising children at a young age.

“Through early intervention and rehabilitation we can stop children being drawn into a lifetime of reoffending.”

But Conservative MP Mr Davies said he was firmly against the idea, saying it could be “an absolute disaster” to devolve crime and policing to Wales.

“We have already seen the complications that have been seen in the health service,” he said.

“There would be a whole list of problems”.

Saying his experiences as a volunteer special constable between 2007 and 2015 meant he had a unique perspective on the matter, Mr Davies said increasing the criminal responsibility age would be “a huge mistake”.

“The advantages of putting someone through criminal procedures is they start to understand the consequences of their actions,” he said.

Pointing to the example of Jamie Bulger, who was murdered by 10-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in 1993, he added: “There are very rare cases where people commit very heinous crimes and deserve to be punished for them.

“I think there would be outrage if a case like that happened again and the public found they had escaped punishment.”

The UK Government’s Ministry of Justice declined to comment.