Teachers exempt from reporting teenage sex under ‘Romeo and Juliet’ clause

Reporting sexually active teenagers to the police will not always be compulsory by law under a new crackdown on child abuse after MPs backed a “Romeo and Juliet” exemption.

Under the new Crime and Policing Bill, teachers and other adults who work with children will face sanctions if they fail to report suspicions of child sexual abuse.

The new law, aimed at protecting minors, was drafted in the wake of child grooming scandals.

But MPs have decided teachers should be given leeway to use their own judgement and will not be obliged to report to authorities consenting underage sexual relationships.

The age of sexual consent in the UK is 16 and, unlike in countries such as Australia, there is no exemption for sexual activity between under-18s, even when the two are in a consensual relationship.

Minister for safeguarding Jess Phillips told MPs at the committee stage of the Bill: “Consensual relationships between young people should not be considered child sexual abuse in the absence of coercion or significant differences in age or maturity.”

She said she did not want to deter young people from being open about their relationships and accessing services.

“This avoids situations such as two kissing teenagers having to be reported to the authorities by a teacher who knows them both well,” she said.

Conservative Harriet Cross told MPs the exemption “recognises that not all sexual activity involving under-18s is a cause for alarm or state intervention”.

“The bar for not reporting should be high,” she said. “As a safeguard, the clause explicitly says to consider the risk of harm. If there is any indication of harm or imbalance, the duty to report remains.

“For example, if a 14-year-old girl is sexually involved with a 17-year-old boy, even if she says she has consented, a teacher or adult might rightly feel uneasy about the power dynamic and the possible impact of grooming. The adult might decide that it is appropriate to report in that case.”

Cross said the exemption was “not about condoning underage sex; it is about proportionality”.

To be exempt from mandatory reporting, teachers and other professionals will need to be sure that the teenagers are both over 13 and there are no concerns about abuse or coercion.

Last week, it was announced that a new child protection authority would be created to address one of the central recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse led by Professor Alexis Jay.

The seven-year probe, which found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims, made 20 recommendations in the final report in 2022, describing child sexual abuse as an "epidemic" in England and Wales.